Best Lunge Variations to Level Up Your Leg Day

Despite your week-long dread, leg day has arrived. It’s a compound movement that strengthens your lower body and core. The first squat people usually do is the back squat because it strengthens the lower body and core. Barbell squats help you move a great deal of weight. There are two options that are most effective for building max lower body strength, these are deadlifts and squats. Although squats are important, they are not the only lower body workouts. If you want a well-rounded lower body routine, you need to include leg accessory exercises. That’s where lunges and their variations come in.

The traditional forward lunge is a great way to work one side of your body at a time. It’s simple, relatively easy to master, and doesn’t require any equipment or significant space. You can correct strength and muscle imbalances by training one side of your body at a time. Working to improve the weaknesses in your squat and deadlift is important for maintaining strong, healthy, and efficient movement patterns. The more efficiently you can perform your big lifts, the more weight you will be able to move.

You can also get these benefits by performing other exercises, such as forward lunges. There are many different ways to lunge that can help you get the most out of your leg day workout. If you want to add some variety and strength to your routine, try these lunge variations.

How do I do a lunge?

So, how to lunge? Lunging refers to the act of moving forward or backward with one leg while lowering the other. Not quite got the gist? It's the OG ‘down on one knee' engagement stance.

What are lunges good for?

Arnie Schwarzenegger once famously said, “The lunge is the king of all exercises.” And he's right. Whether you're trying to tone your legs, build your butt or strengthen your calves, lunges are a great way to achieve your fitness goals. Not only are jump squats a great exercise, but they can also be adapted to your fitness level, so there's no reason not to do them.

What muscles do lunges work?

An exercise that targets multiple areas of the body, lunges specifically target the hips, glutes, quads, hamstrings, core, and inner thigh muscles.

How many lunges should I do?

In order to build more strength and see an increase in muscle tone, you should work out in the 8-12 rep range. Too easy? Add some weight or slow down the pace. Think slower means easier? Think again. This will result in your muscles being under tension for a longer period of time, making you work harder.

Best Lunge Variations

TRX Lunge

There’s nothing “basic” about bodyweight exercises. If you are new to working out, it is especially important to master the fundamentals. If you are coming back from surgery or injury, mastering the fundamentals is also important. The TRX lunge is a move that helps to improve your balance and coordination while working your legs at the same time. The TRX lunge is a great way to improve your balance and coordination while working your legs.

You can provide support to your lower body and core by holding the TRX handles while you lunge. This strategy can help you maintain your balance and improve your lower body strength while learning different lunge variations.

Benefits of the TRX Lunge

Using TRX handles to support your lunge supports you in learning the mechanics of the lift.
The TRX lunge helps strengthen your lower body to prepare you for unsupported lunges.
Athletes who are looking to try more advanced variations of lunges can use TRX lunges to support their balance and strength as they develop.

How to Do the TRX Lunge

Grab TRX handles in your hands at chest level. Back up to a point where the handles will support your weight if you lean back, but there's enough slack for you to bring them to hip level. Step back into a reverse lunge while holding the handles loosely. Touch your back knee to the floor gently. Stand up by pulling the handles toward your chest, letting them help support your weight and balance. Reset and repeat.

Reverse Lunge

The first lunge that people usually learn is the reverse lunge, even if they need some help from TRX handles. This lunge is a variation of the traditional forward lunge that requires you to take a step forward. Instead of taking a step forward, the lifter takes a step back in the reverse lunge.

Although people who lift weights differ in their preferences based on their own sense of proprioception and biomechanics, many find the reverse lunge a bit easier to balance. If you are looking to lift heavier weights, the reverse lunge can help you to manage the weight. If you are just learning how to do the reverse lunge, it can help you to understand it better overall.

Benefits of the Reverse Lunge

Many lifters see the reverse lunge as easier to balance than the traditional forward lunge, which makes it a great stepping stone to more advanced moves.
Because you may find it easier to balance, you can potentially load this variation up fairly heavy.
The reverse lunge can help your hips stay stable at the bottom of your squat.

How to Do the Reverse Lunge

Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart. Ground down into your left foot for balance. Put your right foot back behind you, so your back knee is at a 90 degree angle to the floor. Once you have your right foot behind you and both of your knees are bent. Bend your right leg at the knee so that your thigh is parallel to the ground. Make sure your front leg is bent at a 90 degree angle. After you complete the standing position, bring your back foot up and return it to the starting position. Repeat on the opposite side.

Reverse Lunge With Rotation

This is a reverse lunge with a literal twist. You will need some core strength to keep your torso upright when performing a reverse lunge, especially when doing loaded variations. Making the move more challenging by adding a rotation. Working your obliques more will also help mix things up.

Your body will rotate toward the side of your front leg as your back leg steps back. This means that if you step backwards with your left leg, you will rotate your body towards the right. Keep your shoulders back and down, and rotate through your rib cage rather than tugging your hips out of position.

Benefits of the Reverse Lunge With Rotation

Adding a rotation to your reverse lunge increases your core engagement during this lower body move.
You’ll involve your obliques in this one, which bodes well for developing more side-to-side stability.
Since your upper body won’t be staying still, you’ll increase the balance and coordination challenge with this one.

How to Do the Reverse Lunge With Rotation

Set up to perform a reverse lunge. Maintain a tall torso. As you send your left leg back behind you, twist your torso to the right so that you are facing the right side of the room. twist your torso to the right so your left knee touches the ground Untwist as you come back to standing. Reset and repeat on the other side.

Pendulum Lunge

The lunge pendulum is a more dynamic way to do your regular forward and reverse lunge. This means that you will perform the forward lunge and then immediately go into the reverse lunge without stopping. First, you'll step backward into a lunge. From there, you'll swing your body forward into a lunge. Doing this will cause you to go into a reverse lunge without your foot touching the floor in the middle.

If you are unable to transition without landing on the ground, that is acceptable. You can tap your toe down at the center standing position between different types of lunges if you need to. If you want to increase the difficulty of the balance challenge, you can slowly reduce the number of toe touches, and eventually eliminate them altogether.

Benefits of the Pendulum Lunge

By incorporating a forward lunge and a reverse lunge into each rep, you’ll be adding quality volume to your training.
You dramatically increase the balance challenge with this variation, since one leg will stay grounded while the other acts as a pendulum.
This move teaches a lot of movement discipline — moving too fast or too slow can both cause balance upsets.

How to Do the Pendulum Lunge

Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Ground your right foot into the floor for stability. Step back with your left foot to perform a reverse lunge. Stand up straight, then bend your knees until your back thigh is parallel to the ground. When your back knee gently touches or approaches the ground, come back to standing. Keeping your left foot off the ground, transition into a forward lunge. Repeat for reps, then switch sides.

Walking Lunge

Walking lunges are a common exercise for people who are dedicated to leg training and have a lot of mental stamina. While walking lunges might looks a bit strange, they are actually a great way to work out your quads, glutes, and hamstrings.

You can hold these weights in a variety of ways — at your sides, in front of your chest like a goblet, or overhead. If you're not ready to lift weights, the bodyweight version will still be effective. The following text describes an activity that will both test your balance and tire your muscles.

Benefits of the Walking Lunge

Adding such a dynamic element to the traditional lunge adds an even bigger balance component to the lift.
Your proprioception and overall body awareness can get a lot better the more you practice walking lunges.
This move provides an excellent challenge to pretty much all your lower body muscles.

How to Do the Walking Lunge

Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart. Take a step forward with your right foot. Step back with one foot until your leg is straight and your front knee is bent at a 90-degree angle. When your back knee is almost touching the ground, press down on your front foot and stand up. Transition into lunging forward with your next foot. Repeat the process, alternating legs as you walk.

Lateral Lunge

Most lifters are very well-accustomed to moving forwards and backwards. This means movements where you are moving forwards and backwards – like walking lunges – or up and down – like squats. When you move in the frontal plane, you move laterally, from side-to-side. Lateral exercises help improve your lifting ability by working the muscles in your front.

Lateral moves such as lateral lunges can help reduce any side dominance you may have in your everyday life. Working out in the sagittal plane can cause you to develop movement imbalances. These imbalances can be ironed out by also working out in the frontal and transverse planes. This variation also helps strengthen your adductors and abductors — think, the muscles on the inner sides of your thighs. Building resilience as an athlete can help you persevere through difficult challenges, whether they are in the form of heavy weights or unforeseen obstacles.

Benefits of the Lateral Lunge

This variation targets your adductors and abductors, which help stabilize your hips, lower back, knees, and core.
Many athletes don’t spend nearly enough time moving in the frontal plane — these lunges are an excellent way to practice that.
Lateral lunges teach a unique kind of proprioception and balance that will help you with side-to-side imbalances.

How to Do the Lateral Lunge

Place your feet at hip-width apart with your toes facing forward. Step out to the right with your right leg. Sit back on your right leg, with your knee going over your toes. Stand with your left leg straight and your foot firmly on the ground. Use your right foot to help push you back to standing. Reset and repeat.

Skater Squat

This lunge is done by stepping backward with one leg and then lowering your hips until your back knee nearly touches the ground. Your front leg should be bent at the knee at a 90-degree angle. Usually, you’ll step back and touch your foot down. Your knee will descend and follow more gradually. Keep your shin parallel to the ground throughout the move.

By keeping your back leg in a stationary position, the pressure on your front leg to balance increases. The front leg will need to be strong to support the body's weight during the entire repetition. This lunge is different than others because your back toes will help support your weight throughout most of the move. The TRX handles can be used for balance and strength assistance if needed.

Benefits of the Skater Squat

This move helps you develop an even stronger sense of balance than your regular lunge because you won’t have your foot balancing your weight.
Since your back foot and knee will both be off the ground for so long, you’ll essentially be performing part of a single-leg squat.
You will develop a huge amount of strength in your front leg, preparing you to perform pistol squats.

How to Do the Skater Squat

Get into a position as if you are going to do a lunge in reverse. Bend your back leg. Hold your shin parallel to the ground. Maintaining this parallel position, descend into a reverse lunge. To keep yourself from falling, extend your arms out in front of you. Your toes and knee should meet the ground simultaneously. Come back to standing and repeat.

Split Squat

Think of split squats as static lunges. In a reverse lunge position, you will keep your feet in the same place and not bring them back to the center. But that doesn’t mean they’re easy to pull off.

Since you will not be moving around, split squats are a good exercise to do with heavy weights, slow reps, 1 1/2 reps, and other ways to increase difficulty. No matter how you perform them, your quadriceps, gluteal muscles, and hamstrings will be put under a lot of strain.

Benefits of the Split Squat

Many lifters find this move easier to maintain balance-wise because your feet will be in the same position the whole time.
If you tend to struggle with proprioception and knowing where your body is in space, you’ll only have to establish your proper position once (before your first rep).
Since balance will be somewhat less of a factor, you can load this move up pretty heavily.

How to Integrate Lunges Into Your Program

Lunges are an excellent way to improve your leg strength, and can be performed anywhere. Here are a few options for starting to add lunges to your workout routine:

Add Lunges to Your Warm-Ups

Lunges can be easily added to a warm-up by incorporating this move into your program. Pre-exhaustion sets can be used to help your body better complete bilateral exercises, such as back squats and deadlifts. The lunge is a great way to start your warm-up routine. It helps improve coordination and balance, and isolates muscles needed for the more complex work you'll be doing later.

In addition, warm-ups are a way to build up unilateral strength and balance without doing a lot of repetitions or using a lot of weight. This can be used as a starting point for progressing to using lunges as a way to increase strength and muscle size.

Swap Squats for Lunges

Doing squats instead of lunges during strength blocks can be a good way to change up your workout routine. Lunges can be done with different variations, such as Bulgarian split squats and walking lunges. You can put more weight on these variations. You can increase hip and knee stability, build serious strength and hypertrophy by doing this. every day You can increase your strength without doing heavy squats every day.