Lunges: Why You Should Be Doing Them

The lunge may look like a relatively straightforward exercise.

You stand with your foot together, knees and toes facing forward. Step one leg out in front, bend both knees until the back one nearly touches the floor and the front one is at around a 90 degree angle, then push back forcefully to the start. Not much to it really.

You could be forgiven, therefore, for thinking that lunges don’t really matter. After all, you can lift more weight on a barbell squat than you can on a lunge, and your quads don’t get the same burn from lunges as they do from a high rep set of leg extensions, so why include lunges in your routine?

When you do a bilateral exercise, where both legs work at the same time, such as the leg press, one leg will almost always do more work than the other. This is due to muscular imbalances that have built up over the years you’ve been training, and potentially stemmed from a previous injury, or the way you stand and move in every day life. The discrepancy on strength between your two legs may be minimal, but the more reps you do, the worse it can become, and the strength deficit increases.

By adding lunges into your routine, you work each leg independently. This can not only help you to identify possible weaknesses and imbalances between sides, but also correct them.

Where both legs perform different movements when lunging, this tests the ligaments around the knee – predominantly the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the medial collateral ligament (MCL.) Strengthening these ligaments, and the other supporting structures around the knee joint is important for anyone, but particularly for two groups of people – athletes and females.

Athletes often have to make quick turning movements, change direction and accelerate or come to a dead stop, which places a high degree of stress on these ligaments. Likewise, women are more prone to knee ligament injury, due to their natural bone structure of wide hips and slightly narrower knees. Get strong ligaments with lunges, and you’re injury-proofing your lower body.

If you’re used to only ever performing bilateral movements, or basing your leg workouts around machines, rather than free-weights, then lunges are a surefire way to kick-start muscle growth. Not only do they hit your quadriceps, they also work your hamstrings, glutes, calves, and even give your core a bit of a going over. Different lunge variations target muscle groups differently too, meaning there’s a lunge variation for every occasion.

See Also: Serious Gains With Serious Squats

Those with tight and immobile hip flexors, adductors, quads, hamstrings and calves can seriously struggle to perform even a basic body-weight lunge. By training yourself through a shorter range of motion first, then gradually building up until your technique’s perfect, before adding weight, not only do you strengthen these muscles, but you increase their mobility too.

The Best Lunge Variations

Lunges needn’t be boring.

Sure, the basic lunge as detailed at the start of this article doesn’t have that much about it, and once your proficient in those, you may find you want more of a challenge, but there are so many lunge variations out there you’re spoilt for choice.

For instance, the different types of weight you can use include –

- Bodyweight

- Dumbbells (just one or a pair)

- Kettlebells (just one or a pair)

- Barbells (regular barbell, or a specialty bar such as a cambered bar or a safety squat bar)

- Medicine ball

- Sandbag

The Reverse Lunge

The reverse lunge is performed in much the same way as a standard forward lunge, but instead of stepping forward and lunging down, you step backward and lunge down. These are a little more glute and hamstring dominant than forward lunges.

Deficit Lunges

Rather than just performing your lunges standing on the floor, grab a small platform (a low aerobic step is ideal,) and lunge from that. You can do this on forward or reverse lunge variations.

Walking Lunges

Bored of standing still? Then go for a walk.

With walking lunges you need a fair bit of room, but the fact you’re moving constantly not only makes them more taxing on your muscles, but increases the cardio demands of the exercise too. These should not be underestimated as a seriously-tough muscle builder – they were a favourite exercise of legendary bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman, who would perform walking barbell lunges along the length of the car park at his gym in Texas.

Lateral Lunges

If you need something that improves your mobility even more than a standard lunge, look no further than the lateral lunge. These involve stepping to the side and lunging down. Be warned – if your mobility isn’t top notch, these will be a real challenge at first.

Short Step Lunge

Simply shortening your stride can transform your lunge workout. A regular lunge hits your quads and hamstrings in a roughly equal proportion. Short step lunges are far more quad-dominant however, so if you want to really test your quads after your squats, leg presses and leg extensions, short step lunges are for you.

See Also: Push-ups For Strength

Long Step Lunge

If the short step lunge is more quad-dominant, then say hello to its hamstring-dominant best friend, the long step lunge. Aim to step 20 to 30 percent further than you would normally to give your hammies and glutes a good seeing too. You’ll get a great hip flexor stretch on this one too.

Curtsy Lunge

From a standing position, step one foot diagonally behind the other and drop into a lunge. The front knee should be in line with the front foot. This variation targets the glutes and inner thighs.

Jumping Lunge

Begin in a forward lunge position. Jump explosively into the air, switching your feet mid-jump to land in a lunge with the opposite foot forward. This plyometric exercise boosts cardiovascular fitness and builds explosive strength.

Forward Lunge

Begin by standing tall with feet hip-width apart. Step forward with one foot, lowering your body until both knees are bent at about a 90-degree angle. Ensure the front knee is directly above the ankle and the back knee hovers just above the ground. Push off the front foot, returning to the starting position. Alternate legs.

There you have it – loads of new lunge variations to add into your routine. Pick one, perform it for a few weeks, while adding weight and/or reps every session, then move on to another, and watch your leg strength soar.