lunges

Lunges are without a doubt an excellent lower body muscle builder, they are also great for functionality, flexibility and mobility. They’re pretty versatile too, you can do them anywhere. Of course, in order to progress you will need to load the exercise by adding weight.

Here we will delve into the muscles worked, how to perform Lunges, benefits, common mistakes to avoid, reps and sets, how to progress this exercise, how and where to fit it into your workout plan and finally other exercises targeting the same muscle groups.

Muscles Worked When Performing Lunges

Lunges are a compound exercise, meaning they engage multiple muscle groups, primarily targeting the lower body. The key muscles worked during Lunges include:

Quads: Lunges are excellent quad builders.

Hamstrings: Your hamstrings are engaged throughout the exercise.

Glutes: Lunges also engage the glutes, helping you to build your booty.

Calves: Your calves contribute to supporting your overall stability as you lunge.

Core Muscles: Your core also plays a crucial role in maintaining balance and stability during Lunges.

You can use the muscle highlighted image at the top of this page for a visual guide of the muscles worked.

All of the above muscle groups are further challenged when you add weight to this exercise. Keep reading to learn how you can add weight to this exercise.

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How to Perform Lunges

1. Start Position: Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Keep your chest high and maintain a natural curve in your lower back with your bum out and your chest high.

2. Execution: Step forward with one leg, bending both knees until they form 90-degree angles. Your front knee should be directly above your ankle, and your rear knee should hover just above the ground. Then lift your back leg and step it all the way out in front of you as you immediately go into another lunge on the opposite leg.

3. Balance and Alignment: Ensure your torso remains upright, and your core muscles are engaged. Focus on your overall balance and control throughout the movement.

5. Go For Reps: To perform walking lunges, alternate legs with each step forward for as many reps as you choose. For stationary lunges, lunge and then step back, switch legs and lunge again for your desired number of reps.

Weight Types You Can Use to Perform This Exercise

Once you have mastered your lunge form, it’s time to add weight. Weight types you can add include a barbell across your shoulders, a sandbag, or a dumbbell or kettlebell held in rack position over your chest.

Benefits of Lunges

Lower Body Strength: Lunges are exceptional for building strength and power in your lower body, focusing on the quads, hamstrings, and glutes.

Functional Fitness: This is a functional exercise which will support your ability to perform daily activities, such as walking, climbing stairs, or carrying loads.

Flexibility and Mobility: Lunges contribute to better hip flexibility and mobility, which can reduce the risk of injuries and improve posture.

Core Engagement: To maintain balance during lunges, your core muscles work hard, this helps strengthen your core, which in turn makes literally everything in your physical life easier.

Lunges: Common Mistakes to Avoid

Knee Over Toes: Avoid allowing your front knee to extend beyond your toes when lunging. Step further out if this occurs to protect your knee joint.

Don’t Lean Forwards or Backwards: Maintain an upright posture throughout the lunge, avoid leaning forwards, backward, or to the sides. This helps ensure you are performing this exercise correctly.

Poor Range of Motion: It's more beneficial to perform deep, controlled lunges than numerous shallow ones. Aim to bring your knee as close to the ground as possible, but not touching.

Correct Form Before Loading: Master proper Lunge form before adding weight to this exercise.

Reps and Sets

The number of reps and sets you perform depends on your current strength with this exercise.

Beginners: Start with simply mastering the move. Keep in mind that if you’re just starting out, 3 reps is a valid set.

To determine how many reps/sets of 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 judgment.

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 Lunges More Challenging

To make this exercise more challenging you can add more weight of course, for Lunges this can be a barbell across your shoulders, a sandbag, or a dumbbell or kettlebell cupped in two hands over your chest.

Alternatively, you can slow down the range of motion so that you are performing your Lunges with more time under tension.

How to Incorporate Lunges into Your Workouts

Lunges belong in your lower body, leg or full-body strength workouts. This is a compound exercise, meaning it will target multiple muscle groups in a single movement. Because it’s loaded with some weight too, it’s a pretty powerful move which should therefore be positioned towards the beginning of your workout.

Always start with the biggest moves that use the most weight, and work your way down from there. If your plan includes a squat or a deadlift, do that first, then work your way down through barbell exercises to dumbbell exercises and then onto cable and machine exercises towards the end. You can learn more about exercise order here.

Exercises That Work Similar Muscles to Lunges

Exercises like Squats, and Bulgarian Split Squats are great compound moves to help further strengthen your lower body for better Lunge performance. Compound exercises are crucial for muscle growth since they allow you to move more overall weight than isolation exercises, helping you build the muscle faster.

You can also pair this exercise with other squat variations, such as the Goblet Squat, Hack Squat or Sumo Squat; if you’re looking for more quad or hamstring isolation you can perform Leg Extensions or Leg Curls. A combination of compound and isolation exercises is recommended for well rounded results.

There are more Leg Exercises at the bottom of this page. Or you can check out our entire exercise database broken down by muscle group here.

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