Dumbbell Side Lunge

The Dumbbell Side Lunge is a lower body exercise that will help you to build the muscles in your legs and hips while also helping you develop your overall balance and coordination. This lateral movement variation of the traditional lunge helps in developing strength, stability, and flexibility in your lower body.

Performing the Dumbbell Side Lunge with weights adds resistance, making it a valuable addition to any strength training routine. This exercise is especially beneficial for athletes and those looking to improve their functional fitness.

Muscles Worked When Performing the Dumbbell Side Lunge

The Dumbbell Side Lunge primarily targets the following muscles:

Quads: The quads are the primary muscle group activated during side lunges, if you’re not feeling this exercise heavily on the quads, you’re doing something wrong.

Hamstrings: While primarily a quad-focused exercise, Dumbbell Side Lunges also offer a good workout for the hamstrings, located at the back of your thighs.

Glutes: Your gluteus maximus (buttocks) is the largest muscle in your body and it is actively engaged during this exercise.

Adductors: Your inner thigh muscles also get a good workout here since they are emphasised due to the lateral movement.

Calves: Your calf muscles are engaged from a secondary perspective, but play a huge part in keeping you upright.

Core: As with all standing exercises, your core is fully engaged all the way through.

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How to Perform the Dumbbell Side Lunge

1. Set Up: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your arms hanging straight down by your sides.

2. Step Out: Take a large step to the side with your right foot, keeping your left foot planted on the ground.

3. Lower: Bend your right knee and push your hips back, lowering the dumbbells towards the floor while keeping your left leg straight.

4. Depth: Continue lowering until your right thigh is at least parallel to the floor or as far as your mobility allows. - You can continue to work on your depth as you progress with this exercise.

5. Push Back: Push through your right heel to bring yourself back up to start position.

6. Repeat: Complete the desired number of reps on your right leg before switching to your left.

Benefits of the Dumbbell Side Lunge

Improved Lateral Strength: The Dumbbell Side Lunge enhances strength in the muscles that are often neglected by traditional forward and backward lunges.

Better Balance and Stability: This exercise requires and improves your balance, which is crucial for overall functional fitness.

Enhanced Hip Mobility: The lateral movement helps in improving flexibility and mobility in the hips.

Functional Fitness: While you may never find yourself sid lunging down the street, you will find that the additional lower body strength and power you build with this exercise translates to better overall fitness.

Core Strength: Having a strong core is everything, it will help you to live a stronger, more mobile life long term.

Dumbbell Side Lunge Common Mistakes to Avoid

Knee Alignment: Ensure your stepping knee tracks over your toes and does not cave inward to avoid knee strain.

Back Position: Maintain an upright torso without rounding your back to prevent lower back injuries.

Foot Placement: Keep the non-stepping foot flat on the ground and pointed forward to ensure stability.

Range of Motion: Lower yourself as much as your flexibility allows but avoid going too low too soon as this could lead to unnecessary injury.

Rushing: Perform the movement in a controlled manner to maximise muscle engagement and reduce the risk of injury.

Reps and Sets

It’s on you to determine how many reps and sets you should perform. It depends on your goals, but more generally speaking, it depends on how many reps you can actually do.

Beginners: Start with simply mastering the move. Keep in mind that if you’re just starting out, 4 reps is a valid set.

To determine how many reps/sets of Dumbbell Side Lunges you should start with, you first need to figure out how many reps you can comfortably perform. Then add 2, and perform that number of reps for 3 sets.

For example; let’s say you can perform 4 reps comfortably. Add 2 to make 6 reps. Perform those 6 reps 3 times over, allowing yourself sufficient rest inbetween.

Experienced lifters: You know your body and its abilities better than anyone, use your own judgement.

We recommend that you avoid performing more than 12 reps per set. If you’re comfortably performing 12 reps for up to 6 sets, it’s time to make the exercise more challenging.

How to Make The Dumbbell Side Lunge More Challenging

You can make this exercise more challenging by slowing the exercise down to increase your time under tension. You can also slow down half the exercise, so lunge down at normal speed and then slowly back up to start position through a clean and controlled movement.

Another option for making the Dumbbell Side Lunge more challenging is of course to add more weight. This can be in the form of a set of a dumbbell held in rack position, a kettlebell, or a barbell across your shoulders.

How to Incorporate the Dumbbell Side Lunge into Your Workouts

Incorporating the Dumbbell Side Lunge into your workout routine can significantly enhance your lower body strength, stability, and overall functional fitness. Ensure to perform the exercise with proper form and gradually increase the intensity to continue reaping its benefits.

Leg Day: Include the Dumbbell Side Lunge as a primary or accessor exercise to target the inner thighs and glutes.

Full-Body Workouts: Add this exercise to your full-body routine to enhance overall lower body strength and power.

Supersets and Circuits: You can pair the dumbbell side lunge with other lower body exercises like squats or deadlifts for a comprehensive superset or part of a circuit.

Warm-Up or Finisher: Using lighter weights and higher reps you can use any exercise as part of your warm-up routine or as a finisher to fatigue the muscles at the end of your workout.

Exercises That Work Similar Muscles to the Dumbbell Side Lunge

If you want to work on your side lunge game, consider adding some other exercises that target the same muscle groups.

The reason it is beneficial to work a range of exercises is because they all hit the target muscles differently, so variety will ensure that you are building each muscle from all angles.

Other exercises to consider include; Curtsy Lunges, Goblet Squats, Lateral Step-Ups or Walking Lunges.

But that’s not all, there are plenty of other exercises for you to explore in our database. See more Leg Exercises Here.

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