There are not too many exercises that rip your leg muscles to shreds and leave you as breathless as the walking lunge. It is a popular exercise in many strength and fitness classes for this very reason but there is a lot more to this than many people realize, especially if you add some of the variations I am about to discuss in this article. For those of you who want a new challenge in your workout or, perhaps find it a bit boring and monotonous doing the same walking lunge variation, you will find these advanced progressions exactly what you need. Enjoy.

Make Sure Your Technique Is Right With Body-weight Basic Lunge First

It goes without saying that before you attempt anything harder with the walking lunge that you have good technique and adequate strength with the basic lunge first.

If your technique is not correct you will do more harm than good by attempting more complicated versions of the lunge! Quality is always more important than doing more. You must know where is a good place to start for your level of ability and work your way up the levels of difficulty. The closer you are to perfect form the more you will get out of the movement. Never sacrifice exercise technique to do more reps.

This may also mean you will need to work on improving your hip mobility and basic gluteal strength first which may take some time to improve.

Instructions:

1. Standing upright in a split stance as body weight, barbell on your back or holding dumbbells by your sides.
2. Drawing your belly button inwards bend your knees to lower to the point where your back knee just touches the ground.
3. Push with your legs to return to standing and repeat.
4. Perform on the opposite side

Watch the video below to see me explain how to complete perfect form and avoid many of the common mistakes. I also provide you with some ideas on how to make it easier if this exercise does usually hurt you.

Now that you have the basic version perfected it is time to progress to the walking lunge. These exercises are listed in order or easiest to hardest so you can gradually progress your way through the different variations.

1. Body-weight walking lunge

This first version is quite simple and the one most people are familiar with. The reason this is so much harder than the standard lunge is that your body is now on the move forcing your muscles in your legs and core to work much harder to decelerate the body.

The biggest mistakes I usually see with this are:

1. Falling excessively forwards to compensate for poor hip mobility, weak glutes, or potential joint pain.
2. Taking shorter steps to compensate for instability.
3. Landing excessively on the ball of the foot and avoiding keeping the heels on the floor to dominate with the quads.

These mistakes are often avoided if you spent enough time working on your hip mobility and the fundamentals with the basic lunge. This is also why I regularly try to develop strength with the legs and in particular muscles of the hips in other movements like the Romanian deadlift first. The skills picked up in the deadlift will often prepare the body for these much more difficult movements really well.

Instructions:

1. Standing with feet a comfortable distance apart.
2. Draw your belly button inwards and step forward dropping into a lunge.
3. Stand up and step forward with the other leg dropping into a lunge.
4. Repeat for the prescribed number of reps.

2. Diagonal Walking Lunge

This version remains as a body-weight version but now includes the added skill of agility to be able to change direction with diagonal steps. Although it is not extremely difficult to execute it does create an added challenge for the person who may not have great agility and core stability to maintain a good posture for movement.

Agility is a very under-rated ability and one that is easily lost if it is not constantly trained. While this sounds like it is only something we use in sports, it is the same ability an older adult will require to correct a slip or a fall.

This exercise is a great way to enhance this skill.

Watch the video below at the 6:40 mark to see this in action.

3. Backwards Walking Lunge

This is much harder than it looks and could arguably be placed much further down the list. Once again the added skill of agility is required here but the real challenge with this comes with the quadriceps and in particular their strength in supporting the knee.

This is a progression of walking backwards as much as it is a progression of the lunge and there is a lot of research showing there are great advantages with reverse walking to helping someone overcome knee pain. This is something I discussed in great detail earlier this year in the article – How good is walking backwards for knee pain?

When you walk normally in a forward direction your leg swings through the air, and your heel lands on the ground first. Then your straight knee bends slightly as you roll from your heel to your toes. As this occurs, your opposite leg rolls from your toes and up into the air. This heel-to-toe motion repeats and normal walking occurs.

To control these motions, the quadriceps and hip flexors contract concentrically (shortening) to lift the hip and leg followed by the glutes and hamstrings having to contract eccentrically (lengthening) to control the landing.

Reverse walking involves an opposite gait process. Your leg swings through the air and reaches backward with a bent knee. Your toes contact the ground, and your bent knee straightens as you roll from your toes to your heel. Then your heel leaves the ground with your knee straight, and the process is repeated.

By changing the movement sequence and direction you completely change the muscle activation demands. When you walk backwards you are landing on your toe first and then rolling off your heel making it harder to have longer strides. This requires a lot more knee extension to occur during the stance phase and more knee flexion when you reach back to take steps but due to the concentric and eccentric actions being reverse it is easier to control the forces around the knee.

This gives a mechanical advantage to the quadriceps and hip flexors as they lengthen, while simultaneously giving the same advantage to the glutes as they shorten. This can put less stress and compressive force on the knees.

The walking lunge is very similar to this except the strength demands are considerably greater.

Watch the video from the 7:15 mark to see this in action.

4. Medicine Ball Held Behind The Head Walking Lunge

This version is the first time we add some resistance to the walking lunge but the real challenge with this exercise is the demands on the core to maintain a good posture.

By holding the ball behind the neck it takes away any ability to move your body forward to compensate for weakness in the legs or core. This slight modification really surprises many people as to how difficult it can be to execute good form. This is something I do a lot with the kneeling inline stability lunge I use with falls prevention and as a test for core stability.

Try it for yourself to see how tricky it can be.

Watch the video from the 4:42 mark.

5. Dumbbell walking lunge

Now we are finally at the point where you adding a significant load. As you can see from the earlier progressions, adding weight is not always the best progression to use after body-weight as some people may require other skills to make this easier to do.

Once you are good enough to handle loads your leg muscles are going to be placed under significant stress that will leave your muscles sore for a few days and force them to adapt and strengthen. It is important to get to this point but you must acknowledge that you will need to rest for 2-3 days to ensure they fully recover.

You will also start to experience breathlessness and the increased demands on your fitness. The leg exercises in particular place a massive stress onto the heart, as the body is forced to pump huge volumes of blood to the working muscles. The muscles in your legs are the largest muscles in your body, so when they are on the limit of their capability the heart is also working to its limit to keep oxygen in your blood so you can continue to move.

The harder your muscles work the more oxygen they require, which means we start breathing faster, our hearts start pumping faster, we get sweaty, and eventually have to stop to regain our breath. This is cardio.

You can read more about this in the article – Can you get fit lifting weights?

Lastly, make sure you maintain a great posture with your upper back when you add dumbbells and do not allow the body to fall into a poor kyphosis type of posture. Once again this is why it is important to learn exercises like farmers walks and suitcase carries to prepare your grip and upper back muscles to handle the demands of carrying loads.

This is an argument renowned Physical Therapist Gray Cook has made many times in his videos and books. Here is a great quote from one of his videos I watched a few years ago that really stuck with me.

"This is one of the central problems in Western fitness: We try to lift things before we have carry capacity. Take the kind of weights you want to lift and carry them. Let’s carry those with alignment and integrity under load. Guess what would happen if we all did more carries than lifts? You wouldn’t be looking for correctives. This can help your endurance.

It can help your core stabilization. It can help your posture.

This is where balance starts—carries, not with deadlifting; not with bench pressing and not with single-leg deadlifts, and not with Turkish getups and swings and push presses.

Balance starts with work capacity. Alignment with integrity is good balance. A balance beam on the floor is a pre-requisite for this, but now alignment with integrity under load is a good rebuttal." -  Gray Cook.

6. Medicine Ball Slams With Walking Lunge

This version tries to combine the added skill of trunk rotation to the movement which is why I rate this as harder than the dumbbell lunge. Usually we would train the rotational movement with exercises like cable wood-chops, or medicine ball throws as the greatly mimic the position and action needed in most sports.

With throwing activities like Baseball, Golf, and Tennis you will find the foundational movement pattern will be more of a lunge or lateral movement with rotation.  This provides the body with the ability to provide explosive power from the legs into the core and out the arms via a weight transfer.

Developing the ‘wind-up-and-rotate’ velocity for these sports through weight training is impossible as you require exercises that encourage this type of action. This is where the walking lunge is a perfect exercise to use for this training this type of skill.

The only bad part about this exercise is that it takes a fair bit of skill and precise timing to get it right. As opposed to all of the other actions that require control, this one demands a high degree of speed in order to get the timing right. As a result of the fast speed the chance of over-balancing and making mistakes is increased significantly so you have to be patient when learning this as it can be a bit frustrating. Also make sure you do not use a ball that is too heavy or you will lose too much speed on the throw.

Watch the video from the 5:39 mark below to see this in action.

Barbell Clean Grip Walking Lunge

We are now starting to get the really serious stuff now. This is a heavy resistance type of walking lunge that also includes a complex technical aspect that many people may not be able to do.

The clean grip used with the barbell is the same grip needed with Olympic lifting techniques and this takes a considerable amount of training to learn how to get it right. If you struggle to get this concept you can easily place the barbell on your upper back as you would normally do with a back squat. This will still be extremely difficult to complete and give your legs and core a real challenge but it will be without the uncomfortable and tricky to learn clean grip.

The barbell differs to dumbbells in a big way in that it does not allow for any deviation away from good posture. If you sway or lean out to one side to compensate for weakness you will find you can lose control of the entire exercise, kind of like having a big see-saw on your shoulders. For this reason it is far superior to the dumbbells even if the identical amount of weight is used.

The clean grip just adds that extra bit of complexity to the exercise and not only is it tiring to the fingers and wrist but also the upper body posture in that it can never relax. For if it does you will feel the elbows begin to dip downward and have this feeling that the bar will fall off your shoulders.

There is no doubt this is one of the hardest leg exercises you can use in the gym.

Watch the video below from the 2:00 mark to see this in action.

Barbell Overhead Walking Lunge

If you thought the last exercise was hard well this takes it up a notch. I would say the hardest part about this variation is not with the legs but with the upper body and in particular the core.

The demands placed upon the muscles that support the rib cage and thoracic region is immense and just like the previous example, any deviation away from perfect position makes the exercise near impossible. This is why many people will need to work on their thoracic mobility before attempting this. Out of all the exercises shown here this is by far the most strenuous for the core to complete so if you were looking for something that does more than just annihilate the leg muscles this is it.

Speaking of leg muscles, you cannot ignore the fact that they are definitely going to be punished here. I would say that it is slightly easier for the legs in that you may need to lower the weight from what you can hold on your shoulders with the previous version. The complexity and more complex skills in this compromise the load in the legs until your upper body and core improve.

To get the most out of these versions I would constantly switch between the two so I can have the best of both. If you have a shoulder or neck injury then this version will not be suitable for you to use so keep that in mind when trying to progress to this.

Due to the complicated aspects of this exercise I created a specific video just about this below.

Low Walking Lunge

This last version on first appearance looks really easy for it goes back to being body-weight. However, do not be fooled by this as I have placed it last for a good reason. It is extremely difficult to master and will rip your leg muscles to shreds.

Some people call this the duck walk for it looks like you are waddling like a duck. This takes advantage of the fact that your muscles remain under constant tension by never allowing you to stand up and release the muscles. This constant build up in combination with the deceleration from the walking lunge itself creates a massive overload in the quadriceps muscles.

You will not feel much in the glutes or hamstrings at all with this for the quads will dominate this entire movement so make sure you balance out your training with some hip loaded movements like deadlifts. Also if you have any hint of knee discomfort this version is not for you for it places tremendous stress into the knee joint.

If you are looking for a challenge and feel the walking lunge is boring then you will not be disappointed with this version. No matter how many times you do this it is always hard.

Watch the video below from the 8:18 mark to see this in action.

Want More Workout Ideas?

If you want even more ideas about how to use different exercises, circuit workouts, strength programs and even cardio and sporting workouts, make sure you get a copy of the Little Black Book of Training Secrets where I share 101 amazing programs just like the ones shown in this article. Click here to see more about what is inside this special report and download your digital copy instantly.

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this article and it provides you with some great ideas of how to gradually progress the walking lunge to maximise your training results. As you can see in the summary of each exercise sometimes it is not about the legs that makes it difficult but how the legs interact with the core and upper body. By using as many variations of these as you can you will ensure your body gets stronger with almost every type of movement pattern. Not only does this prevent injury and pain but will dramatically improve your overall physical strength and fitness. The last 3 exercises in particular are extremely demanding and will bring you to your knees when you work at your full potential.

Good luck.

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About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 18 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specialises in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References:

• Functional Anatomy of the Pelvis and the Sacroiliac Joint - By John Gibbons
• The Vital Glutes - By John Gibbons
• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Athletic Body in Balance - by Gray Cook
• How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
• Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist
• Functional Training For Sports - By Mike Boyle
• Athletes Acceleration Speed Training & Game Like Speed - by Lee Taft
• Knee Injuries In Athletes - by Sports Injury Bulletin
• The ACL Solution - by Robert G Marx
• Understanding & Preventing Non-Contact ACL Injuries - American Orthopaedic Society For Sports Medicine