If you do the same exercises often enough, your body starts to get used to it and it doesn’t give you the same results. This is one reason why I do so many different variations of the same exercises, such as squats and lunges. If you keep mixing it up, your body never becomes used to any one thing and means I can keep them all in my rotation.

Side lunges are an underutilized move, and are so good for toning the outside of your legs. I also find that I feel less pressure in my knees than I do with traditional lunges. It’s very important to work your muscles in all of the planes that they can move in. So focusing on just forward or reverse lunges doesn’t fully utilize or work your muscles. By adding side lunges, you work all sides of your quads.

These particular side lunges are TRX side lunges, and we were encouraged to add weight to help push our cardio levels a bit higher. Now TRX side lunges are difficult enough as you really have to work to find your balance, but adding the weight helps you maintain your balance once you get into position. So that’s an added benefit to adding weight, although it can be a challenge adding the weight into the equation. You will feel very sore along the sides of your legs after you do this move, because we don’t often move sideways. Most of our movement is forward and backwards, which makes sideways movements so beneficial.