"Hello Sir, why do you hate lunges?"

Okay, I have to admit something - I receive the Parillo Performance Press magazine in the mail. I ordered from the company years ago and am seemingly on their mailing list for life. If you've seen this publication before, you'll no doubt have noticed it can be a little light on the science backing their articles and recommendations. I'm not saying the advice is bad for physique athletes, I'm not qualified to say that, I'm just pointing out it's a bit light on science... that's all. Over the weekend I got a new magazine in the mail - for August - well, I hadn't actually looked at one in a while, so I flipped through it. I landed on the Q&A section with Iron Vic. I don't know who this is... if it's someone I should know, please feel free to enlighten me in the comments section.

One of the questions was asking why Iron Vic hates lunges. I just thought the answer was too good not to post (my highlighted points are below if you don't want to read the whole thing... but seriously, read it):

The high... okay, low... points in this for me are:

• The idea that the lunge is a "strange stupid exercise" - as if to suggest a lunge is some exotic variance or something more useful.
• That the lunge was "devised by Olympic weightlifters." Hmm, interesting... I sort of think of it as a basic movement pattern that all humans go through naturally in any number of a variety of situations for both daily life and sport.
• I truly appreciate his italicized emphasis on how if a lunge is done correctly "the back knee touches the floor on each rep." as if to say with that extra emphasis "can you even imagine going all the way down?"
• More great quotes: "lunges are worthless"
• "I am no fan of this pathetic exercise"
• "The lunge, on the worthless exercise scale..."
• "Ditch the lunge."

Wow. Just wow.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. For whatever it's worth, Parillo products are actually pretty good.