1Leaning forward
What you see: The chest tips over the front thigh and the weight goes into the front knee.
The fix: "Lean back." Stay tall and let the back knee drop straight down.
Form guides · Legs and hips
The lunge: tall, steady, one leg at a time.
A lunge shows straight away whether one side of you is doing more than the other.
What good looks like.
A lunge works one leg at a time, so it trains strength and balance together and makes a weaker side hard to hide. Brad's most common lunge cue is to stay tall and "lean back" a touch, because most people tip forward and turn it into a quad exercise.
- A long enough step that both knees can bend to roughly a right angle.
- Torso tall: "lean back" a touch rather than tipping forward.
- Front knee tracks over the middle of the front foot.
- Back knee lowers straight down toward the floor under control.
- Push up through the whole front foot, "squeeze your glute" on that side.
- Head up, "chin in"
- Torso tall: "lean back"
- Front knee over the foot
- Back knee straight down
The faults a trainer sees most
What goes wrong, and the cue that fixes it.
The cues in quotes are the words Brad Glaser uses with his own clients.
2Front knee moves inward
What you see: The front knee caves in as you push up.
The fix: "Knee out." Keep it over your middle toes and squeeze the glute on that side as you push.
3Lower back arches
What you see: The low back sways, often on the back leg side.
The fix: "Tuck it", "abs tight". Think about tucking your tailbone under on the back leg.
4Short step
What you see: The front heel lifts and the front knee shoots far past the toes.
The fix: Take a longer step so the front heel stays down.
Make it easier, make it harder.
Easier
- Hold a wall, counter or a pole.
- Split squat: feet stay in place, you just go down and up.
- Shorter range: only as deep as you control.
Harder
- Reverse lunge with dumbbells.
- Walking lunges.
- A slow lower with a pause just above the floor.
Move within a range that feels comfortable, and stop any exercise that hurts. Have a health condition, or been inactive a while? Ask your doctor what is right for you first. VeraForma is coaching, not medicine. It does not diagnose, treat or cure anything, and it does not replace your doctor or physio.
Let your phone check it.
Prop your phone up and train. VeraForma's camera draws the line on your body and names what it sees, with the number it measured.
Free: your reps counted out loud, and the common standing faults shown right on screen, with the fix in your set report. Go Premium and it speaks the fix while you move: "Knees out." "Chest up."
Scan to open it on your phone.
Free: your movement screen, Phase 1 of your programme and all of nutrition.
More form guides
Built by Brad Glaser · NASM Master Trainer · NASM-CPT, CES, PES · 20+ years · has certified 100+ personal trainers.
He owns a personal-training studio in Southern California. The same method he uses standing next to a client, built into the app.
Train it right, free.
Scan to open it on your phone.
Free account, no card. Brad's questions. One squat on camera. Then your results.