Watch a fitness video and you are sure to find combination exercises that pair two movements together to improve your workout efficiency. The idea of improving your workout efficiency is fine, but if you end up pairing two exercises together that don't really make sense, than are you really improving your workout?
Two examples that come to mind are lunge tricep kick backs and lunge curls. The weight you can curl or kickback is likely not very much and thus it is not going to contribute significantly to the lunge. Further, taking the time to do a curl or kickback between lunges is simply more time when your legs aren't working that hard; making the lunge less effective.
However, one example of a combination exercise that I like very much is the overhead lunge. It involves statically holding a barbell or dumbbells overhead while performing a lunge. This will provide an excellent isometric contraction for your traps, rhomboids, delts and triceps. Not too mention, your core will be working much harder than simply holding the barbell on your shoulders or the dumbbells at your side. That's a lot of muscle groups involved for one exercise. Many muscles involved mean an elevated heart rate.
Further, you simply cannot do an overhead lunge with bad posture. As you hold the weight overhead and lunge, your core and upper back will have to be engaged to keep you from losing your balance or dropping the weight.
So not only are you engaging a ton of muscles groups and getting your heart rate up, but you are also reinforcing good posture. I would be willing to bet most of us could use the extra posture work. We all spend too much time sitting and slumping over.
What are you waiting for? Get on out there an add some overhead lunges to your workout!
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