Video: Lunging Everyday, a Reflection
Cory Gregory Protocol
This year, I stumbled onto the Instagram account of Cory Gregory. It’s easy to stumble onto his account, because he’s got nearly 200,000 followers.
I did a video on my experience doing 400 lunges on more than 235 days in 2020 for a total of more than 95,000 lunges. I am currently on a daily streak of more than 6 months.
He advocates a “lunge and learn” protocol of lunging 400mm every day. I was intrigued by the idea and thought it would be an interesting replacement for cardio as I started my cut back in March. I decided instead of doing 400mm that I would just try to do 400 lunge steps. The appeal of it was that it is low impact, and is shorter than traditional cardio. It lasts around 15 minutes.
There are other benefits that I’ll get into, but that’s the basic reason. I had knee pain and jogging has tended to flat up my Achilles when done excessively.
My Daily Lunge Experience in 2020
So, I started with 100 lunges a day for a few days and ramped up to 400 over a few weeks. I continued for around 90 days and then took a 10 day break for an unrelated surgery to snip out a piece of my meniscus.
Ten days after that surgery, I started lunges again, and have done at least 400 lunges everyday for the last 181 days now. I believe this daily discipline has been a major contributor to the success of my cut and how lean I was able to get. It may not work for everyone, but it works for me.
People see me doing it and sometimes question how it might be impacting my knees. I think it strengthens the knee ligaments, and does a lot less damage than some other forms of cardio like jogging or jumping rope. I’ve seen no I’ll effects, my knee has not been in any pain since surgery.
Does it Have to be Lunges?
Something I’ve thought about is whether there is something unique about lunges that makes it work better than something else I could do. Would I get the same result with 400 air squats or 200 pushups or double-unders?
Clearly if you chose any exercise and did it for a ton of reps everyday, you would see a benefit over time. But I would argue lunges are unique among simple bodyweight movements for a few reasons.
They can be taken slow or fast, but doing them in high volume doesn’t require long breaks like you’d need after your first 40 or so pushups or other things. If you are struggling, just slow down the steps. That constant movement for the 15 or 20 minutes it takes is part of the magic.
Also, they are a great full body movement that helps to strengthen your core stability along with working your quads and glutes.
Conclusion
So, I’m a big fan of the daily lunge protocol and will be continuing it into 2020. I don’t know when my streak will end, but I’m going to keep it going for as long as I can. If I continue, I may even hit 120,000 lunges in 2021.
So, that’s it, just wanted to offer some thoughts on lunges and share my experience. Try them out and let me know how it goes in the comments below.
Keep it on the DL for more reviews of obscure fitness protocols that neighbors think are weird!
