The Staff Lunge is a form of the Overhead Lunge (typically done with a barbell or dumb bells), also sharing its form with the Crescent Lunge from Yoga, but is performed with a
dowel about 1.5 inches in diameter and three to four feet long.
To perform the Staff Lunge:
- Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart.
- Grasp the staff with hands slightly wider than shoulder width.
- Raise the staff over head with elbows straight.
- Brace the abdomen as if you're about to get hit in the stomach and hold the brace throughout the drill.
- Step forward into a lunge position focusing on maintaining balance and keeping the leg from wavering in or out (see image).
- Keep the arms straight overhead.
- Return to the starting position by pushing the heel into ground like you're trying to drive the ground away from you.
- You've completed one repetition.
This drill is surprisingly difficult. You might think that holding a wooden dowel would be just a bit harder than holding match sticks but it's not the dowel that makes it more difficult. It's the position of your arms and disturbance in balance.
When you perform a standard lunge with arms at your sides, the load of the arms adds little to the drill since the arms are so close to the body (center of gravity). But, with the arms overhead, the load increases by about 6-8% of your body weight. So, in my case weighing in around 200 lbs, the dowel adds about 12 lbs of extra load.
With both arms overhead, your balance is challenged especially if you have any flexibility limitations in your thoracic spine, or hips. To maintain your balance, your muscles contract quickly in multiple areas adding to the level of fatigue.
Of course, using a barbell and adding weight magnifies the difficulty. I suggest mastering the Staff Lunge first especially if you struggle keeping your arms overhead. You'll not be able to manage any additional load very well if the arms move forward during the lunge.
CONSIDERATIONS
Cervical Spine: Any time you lift your arms overhead, you increase the pressure in the cervical spine due to contraction of the deep spinal muscles and the more superficial scapular muscles such as the Levator Scapulae. People with degenerative disc or joint disease may need to start with one arm over head then progress to one arm with a light weight.
Shoulder: The last 20 to 30 degrees of shoulder flexion come from the thoracic spine. So, if the thoracic spine is relatively inflexible, when you perform the lunge, you may have difficulty holding the staff over head; the shoulders may drop some (from fully flexed to a less flexed position). The cure for this is to improve thoracic flexibility; not stretch the shoulder.
Lumbar Spine: Tight hip flexors on the side opposite of the lunging leg may increase compression in the lumbar spine by tethering the pelvis in a relatively anterior position. Pay attention to the curve of the spine. It should be smooth with no sharp angulations. Bracing the abdomen protects the spine so pay attention to fatigue in the brace. Improving the flexibility of the hip flexors will help but you may have to shorten the lunging step in the meantime.
Hip, Knee, Ankle: Your joints must tolerate body weight force, at least, for this drill to not overload one or more joints. If your hip is weak, the femur will rotate (adduct or abduct) during the lunge. If you lack talocrural dorsiflexion, pronation will increase usually in the forefoot which may also cause some femur motion.
