Walking Lunge
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Stand tall with your feet together and your hands on your hips.
- Take a long step forward with one leg.
- Lower until the back knee is just above the floor and the front thigh is roughly parallel with it.
- Keep the torso upright — the step, not the lean, is what takes you down.
- Drive through the front foot to stand up, bringing the back foot forward into the next step.
- Continue, alternating legs, for the length of the set.
Common mistakes
- Stepping too short. A short step puts the front knee far ahead of the foot and takes the hip out of it; a long step shares the work between the quadriceps at the front and the glutes and hamstrings behind.
- Pushing off the back foot to stand up. The front leg is what is being trained; the back leg is there for balance, and it will take the repetition if you let it.
- Letting the front knee fall inward. It should track over the middle of the foot, and a walking lunge is where a knee that does this shows up first because there is nothing to hide behind.
- Leaning forward over the front leg. That shifts the load onto the front knee and out of the hip, which is the opposite of what a long step just set up.