The purpose of this exercise is to challenge your stability. A dumbbell in one hand will throw you off balance, so you’ll have to work harder to keep your body tight and stay stable while lunging.
You can also perform this exercise with a kettlebell. When performing this exercise, you can do 10 lunges in one direction with the weight in one hand, then turn around and perform 10 lunges in the opposite direction with the weight in the other hand.
Start standing with a dumbbell in one hand.
Take a step forward with one leg, and slowly lower yourself by bending both knees.
As you lower yourself, you should come up on your toes on your back foot. Your upper body should be slightly tilted forward
Stop just short of your back knee touching the ground as you lower yourself, then push back up.
After pushing back up, switch legs and bring your back foot forward to take a step forward. You will be alternating each leg, as if you were walking, but instead performing lunges.
Tips
When you’re at the bottom of the lunge, both your front and back leg should create about a 90-degree angle. It may be helpful to look in the mirror as you lunge during warm-ups to make sure your front and back leg are at about a 90-degree angle. Then you can get a good feel as to how long of a stride you should take while performing the exercise during your working sets.
You can emphasize different areas of the thighs by taking slightly wider or slightly shorter strides.
Wider strides will emphasize the hamstrings and glutes.
Short strides will emphasize the quadriceps.
When pushing off to come back up, think about pushing off through your heel on your front leg.
