How to Perform Lunges

There may be no better exercise to get faster and improve your single leg strength than the lunge.

I haven’t gone anywhere south of the ribs for this series so far, but there is one basic that is so overlooked and performed incorrectly that we wanted to save it for last. This exercise is used by performance coaches for everything from dynamic warm ups, to strength training, to stretching, to conditioning, to assessment and everything in between. The lunge is a great leg exercise with great carry over to how we move. It’s also one of the most adaptable single leg exercises because you can perform this movement in different stances to accommodate to your training needs. This is how you perform a basic lunge and how you can use it in different phases of your program.

To perform the basic lunge you stand with both feet under your hips. From here, I want you to pick up your right foot and step forward as far as possible and sink straight down. When you sink down your weight should be on your right heel. With your weight on your heel, sink down thinking about keeping your body “tight and tall”, meaning keep your abs tight while pushing your head through the ceiling. This will keep your core tight. During the basic lunge (if using body weight) put your hands on top of your head so that you think about pushing your head up and keeping your posture high. Now if those two weren’t enough, I also want you to think about keeping your body square (i.e. do not rotate your hips). The step should be big enough that when you’re at the bottom of the lunge you feel a mild hip flexor stretch in your left leg.

The bottom position is when your left knee is slightly touching the ground. Your knee does not slam into the floor. Typically you bang your knee once and then learn. I tell my athlete’s to, “Kiss their knee to the ground.” Depth is very important in this exercise so that we can get the mobility and strength in a full range of motion. To return to the standing position you’re going to push your heel of your right foot into the ground as hard as possible while keeping yourself tight, tall and square.

When we use it as a strength training exercise there are different ways of performing the lunge along with different ways of loading it.

Here are our three favorites:

DB Walking Lunge
Holding dumbbells in each hand by your side perform the lunge as described above, but instead of pushing back to the start position through your heel I want you to push forward and step directly into the next lunge. You’re still driving your heel to work the extensor muscles of the leg, but now are propelling ourselves forward rather than backwards. This is sort of like running, only instead we are holding some heavy ass dumbbells and it’s much more painful (love the pain).

To crank it up a notch we also tell the athletes to “step over their knee” like they are in a running stride. Your posture needs to stay “tight and tall” and you need to grip the dumbbells as hard as possible. Try to keep your arms as motionless and straight as possible. Once your arms start swaying all over, so do you. Sway too far and you’ll fall down, and that’s funny for us and not for you. So don’t be the joke of the gym. Stay tall and tight and keep your arms straight. You can do these for reps or for distance, both of which are great, just make sure you’re hitting the same number or reps to the right and left.

BB Reverse Lunges
This exercise is great. We don’t use it quite as much as the walking lunge, but it’s a favorite of mine because you can do this with a bar in so many different positions. We have used it on our backs, in a front squat grip (either in a rack position or with your hands on your shoulders), overhead and in a Zercher stance. All of these tweak it quite a bit. My favorite is the front squat grip because the barbell gives you direct feed back of your posture without sacrificing comfort. Any exercise that corrects and coaches itself is a great exercise.

To perform the movement, start in the same position as the lunge with the bar however you choose to use it. Instead of stepping forward I want you to step back with your weight on your front foots heel. Reach your other leg back as far as possible to get into the “lunge position” without slamming into the ground. Once your knee touches the ground softly, drive your front foot’s heel into the ground and return your trail leg back to the center. This is a great movement that you can really load up with weight and hit your legs big time.

Lateral Lunge
This exercise is great for strength in a different plane of movement. Now instead of stepping out in front you will step out to the side. I have seen people point the foot of the lunging leg in different angles, either straight ahead or at 45 degrees. I used to have my athletes step out and keep their feet pointing in the same direction (straight ahead), but after looking at how people actually move laterally I now have them point their foot out at 45 degrees.

If you look at a slide, shuffle, or a start to the left or right, most of the time you turn that foot out in that direction. It just makes sense to have the exercise mimic the actual movement so we get carryover instead of forcing you to learn a whole new skill. Your trail leg works a little differently in this as well. You are going to keep your trail leg straight. This will help open up your hips and stretch your groin. Another thing that is different, since you’re stepping to the side, is you must control how you move your hips. You need to sit back like a squat and push your hips back, while keeping your trail leg straight. You’ll feel a HA-UGE groin stretch when you’ve hit depth, and that’ll be the only gauge for how low to go. Trust me, once you get back and down enough, you’ll know when to stop. Don’t try to hit a certain depth, just work to improve range of motion by listening to your body and stop when you hit a good stretch. From there, push through your heel and return to the middle, just as in a normal lunge.

We also use the lunge in a plethora of dynamic warm ups and stretching exercises. Instead of boring you with all that, I’m just going to ask you to watch the video. They’re all self-explanatory and I give you a play by play so check it out. These are some of the best exercises to get you ready to crank it up in the gym or kill it in a sport. So learn them, and use them and be ready to go for whatever you’re doing that day.

Single leg strength in sports is so important that some people don’t even prescribe double leg exercises anymore. Not an athlete? Well, chances are you have some imbalance someplace in your body. Do this leg exercise and you’ll see that one leg is probably stronger or more mobile than the other. Get in the gym, do some form of this leg exercise and enjoy the great medical condition that comes from lunging known as “lunge butt.” You’ll know what I mean when you try to find a toilet for the days to come. Now, get yourself lunging and get your legs stronger.