One simple solution to improving your back muscles is doing a bodyweight back exercise. There’s absolutely no need for equipment. Just get on your workout clothes and find a spacious room, and you’ll be ready to perform one easy bodyweight exercise—the crossover reverse lunge.
Here’s how to perform it.
Starting Position
To start, you only have to stand up straight. Stay stable as you prepare to step back as you would typically do with rear lunges.
How To Perform The Crossover Reverse Lunge
Now, step back into a lunge, but do cross over your leg.
As demonstrated above, your stepped-back, right leg should be “crossing” over your left leg as you move your body down.
Now the next steps should be pretty easy—more like mirroring the starting position and the actual crossover reverse lunge.
One benefit of this crossover lunge is targeting “directional forces” you don’t usually deal with in regular lunges. It’s straightforward to perform.
Tips for Progression
If you’d like to level up your reverse crossover lunges, just add some weights. Of course, adding weights other than your body weight to provide for resistance makes the routine no longer a strict bodyweight exercise. Nonetheless, that’s how things work in these types of physical activities. They’re basically body weight exercises, and once you want to advance, adding in some weights doesn’t subtract the bodyweight factor, anyway.
Perhaps the fastest weights you can grab are dumbbells. Carry them in each hand. You can go for:
- 5 pounds
- 10 pounds
- 30 pounds (this is expert level)
How effective the exercise becomes depends on you—how you’re ready for it and how intense you plan it to be.
Progressing Without Weights
Now, if you really want to do a strict bodyweight back exercise, but one that is more advanced, there’s always a way.
One method is to do some isometrics. That is to say that once you get down into the lunge position, hold it there for about five seconds. Then, get up and perform the lunge on the other side. Hold it there for five seconds as well, feeling the tension in your back.
Crossover Reverse Lunge: Add It To Your Bodyweight Workout
The crossover reverse lunge is an excellent bodyweight back exercise. I love doing it as it is simple enough to perform but does get the glutes, quads, and lower legs worked out. I believe it could be a great addition to your regular leg routine, so better try it out.
