I have the exact opposite where squats hurt a damaged area of my back. Can’t really do them with any real weight. So I load up on dumbbell lunges and other leg work. The best I’ve gotten is 5 reps (each side) with 65lb dumbbells (I’m 175lbs)
When I do dumbbell lunges I concentrate on keeping my chest, back and core engaged and when I step forward I also step toward the outside of the leg going forward by about a foot. Helps with stability.
That makes sense. I would sometimes step forward without leaving any space between the two feet (if you were to put them next to eachother). Leaving room between the two works. I’ll try and focus on keeping the chest and back engaged too, with the core.
Interesting about the squats. My range of motion has increased a lot in the past 8 weeks. One thing that really helped was one particular exercise: squats with pulses. When you go down, instead of coming back up right away, you do a pulse and then come back up. I do this one on Thursdays. At first it feels weird but helps a lot.
