Walking Lunges Exercise Guide

Walking lunges are a unilateral lower body exercise that can help you build strength and muscle mass, as well as improve your performance in sports. The lunge can help improve lower body performance in movements like back squats and running by addressing unilateral asymmetries.

How to Perform the Walking Lunge: Step-By-Step Guide

The walking lunge can be performed with a wide range of equipment, such as barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, and more. This exercise is a great way to work the lower body, and can be done with little to no equipment. This step-by-step guide will show you how to do dumbbell walking lunges correctly. . There is only a slight difference in the steps you take depending on what variation of walking lunge you choose.

Step and Descend

holding dumbbells by the sides of your body, with the torso upright. Step forward with one foot, planting the heel firmly on the ground, as if you were taking a big step. Shift your weight and balance forward into the lead leg, and slowly allow both knees (front and back) to bend as you descend.

If you are a lifter, you may be keeping too much weight in the back leg and/or not allowing the back knee/hip flexor to move freely. Make sure the majority of your weight is on your lead leg.

Low and Stable

You should feel the front leg strong and stable, and the full foot attached to the floor as you approach the bottom of the lunge. Keeping the front leg bent, continue to push up through the floor until you are standing upright. Your trailing leg may give you some support, but your momentum should still be going forwards and upwards (standing up).

Be conscious of what your front knee is doing. If your front knee is collapsing inwards, this is a sign of poor glute strength and knee stability. The goal is to keep the knee moving forward over the toes, which should be pointing in the direction you are walking.

Keep Walking

As you stand, bring your back leg forward, like you would during a natural walk.

Repeat the process with the other leg in the front.

4 Benefits of Walking Lunges

Some benefits of walking lunges for athletes are that they can improve hip mobility, challenge the stabilizer muscles, and improve running economy.

1. Unilateral Balance and Coordination

Try adding unilateral movements, like walking lunges, to your training routine to improve coordination, balance, and muscular balance. This is especially important for athletes who primarily train using bilateral movements (squats, pulls, etc.), but it's beneficial for all athletes. Depending on the variation you choose, you may see more improvements in balance, coordination, and mobility, or it may target different parts of your body.

2. Greater Glute Activation

Lunges are an excellent movement to improve the strength of your gluteus maximus and gluteus minimus muscles. This is important for developing stable hips and knees, improving your squat performance, and overall strength. You can increase gluteal engagement by lengthening your strides and increasing the range of motion. Pay attention to your step distances and make sure you are moving through a proper range of motion.

3. Correct Muscular Imbalances and Asymmetries

If you have someone you think may have movement asymmetries or imbalances, you can try walking lunges to help address the issue. Proper technique and muscle development are key to making sure your athlete is safe and can move well in the gym and on the field.

4. Muscle Hypertrophy

If you're looking to bulk up your legs, walking lunges are a great way to do it. They work all the muscles in your lower body and they're especially effective at building muscle mass in your thighs. If you want to target your glutes and hamstrings, take longer strides. If you want to target your quadriceps, take shorter strides and keep your torso more vertical.

Muscles Worked – Walking Lunges

The muscles involved in the walking lunge movement are the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteals, and calf muscles. There are many variations of the walking lunge that target different muscle groups based on the positioning of the barbell and style of the lunge. While there are many muscle groups used while doing yoga, these are some of the most important ones.

• Quadriceps
• Gluteals
• Hamstrings
• Vastus Medialis Obliquus (VMO)
• Soleus and Gastrocnemius

Who Should Perform the Walking Lunge?

The lunge is a movement that can be helpful for people with all types of sports and fitness goals.

Strength and Power Athletes

Performing walking lunges and other unilateral exercises can help address muscle asymmetries, weaknesses, and even improve unilateral leg strength for athletes who focus on strength and power.

• Powerlifters: The lunge is a good accessory and/or strength exercise to help increase leg hypertrophy and improve knee and hip stability. Most powerlifters train bilateral exercises, which can often mask any muscle imbalances or weaknesses, making unilateral exercises like the walking lunge a must for longevity in this intensely loaded sport.
• Strongman Athletes: Similar to powerlifters, strongman athletes can benefit from increasing unilateral stability and strength. Additionally, walking lunges can help aid in knee and hip mobility, improve balance and enhance muscle development in movement specific patterns (since strongman athletes must also express forms of open-chained athleticism for carries, short sprints, and non sagittal movements).
• Weightlifters: Olympic weightlifters can benefit from including walking lunges into training programs as they can enhance many of the same unilateral strength and hypertrophy aspects as discuss above. Additionally, these can be a good exercise to swap into lower body sessions during off season programs to increase the overall stbaility, mobility, and athleticism of an athlete.

Functional Fitness

Walking lunges are an excellent way to build leg strength and muscle while improving your functional movement. Athletes and fitness competitors need strong unilateral stability and strength to excel in their sports.

General Fitness

The walking lunge is a great lower body exercise for building leg strength and muscle, as well as improving endurance and fitness. This exercise may be difficult for beginners, so it is recommended that they start with split squats, step ups, and reverse lunges.

Common Lunge Mistakes

You now have a good understanding of how to do lunges. Some of the most common mistakes people make are costly ones. Let's see how we can fix them!

Pushing off the back foot

If you push off with your back foot instead of your front foot when you lunge, you'll end up off balance, as shown on the left below. In any variation of lunges, the front leg should be bearing the weight. If you put too much weight on your back leg, you won't engage your front leg muscles as much, which can cause stress and pain in your back knee.

Instead of focusing your attention on both legs, focus your attention on the front leg only, as shown on the right. The back leg is there for balance and shouldn't have much weight on it. A proper lunge will distribute the weight evenly between the front and back legs. when ascending, the front leg should do most of the work to avoid placing too much strain on the back leg.

Front heel lifting

One of the mistakes people make when lunging is allowing the front heel to lift up, as shown in the image below. If knee pain is experienced during lunges, this may be the source of the pain! If you do lunges correctly, you shouldn't feel pain in your knees. In fact, lunges can help keep your knees healthy and free from pain. If you lift your heel when you walk, it puts stress on your front knee and can cause knee pain. You also won't be working the right muscles.

This will help improve your mobility and strength When in your lunge, be sure to keep the weight evenly distributed throughout your front foot, including your heel (as seen on the right in the above image). This will help improve your mobility and strength.

This mistake can be because of not knowing the right way to do lunges or because of having limited movement in the ankles or tight calves. If fixing this issue is proving to be difficult, the three drills shown in the video below may help.

1. Calf Foam Rolling – Foam roll your calf as shown in the video. Roll up and down the length of your calf & be sure to roll side to side, as well. Settle on tight areas until you feel a slight release.
2. Wall Ankle Mobilization – Setup in a half-kneeling position facing a wall. Place your hands on the wall then drive your front knee forward as close as you can get it to the wall. Ensure your heel stays on the ground. Move into and out of the stretch.
3. Stair Calf Stretch – Setup standing on the edge of a step or elevated surface with your heels hanging off. Bend into one knee and allow the other heel to stretch down. Alternate between sides.

Front knee caves in

One of the mistakes you can make when lunging is letting your front knee cave in, as shown in the photo on the left. This mistake, if not corrected, can lead to ACL damage, IT Band pain, knee pain, and meniscus injuries.

When performing lunges, keep your front knee aligned with your front hip and ankle, as shown in the image to the right.

Using improper form when lunging could be due to weakness in the hip, specifically the gluteus medius. Additionally, your adductors could be tight.

1. Inner Thigh Rockback – Setup in a table top position with one leg extended straight out to the side. Rock your hips back & forth.
2. Band Squat – Place a band just under your knees. Squat & drive your knees outward to keep tension on the band.
3. Band Resisted Lunge – Anchor a band on a sturdy object. Setup in a lunge position with the band around the outside of your front knee. Perform the lunge keeping outward tension on the band.

Improper stance