Lunge

Movement

One study measured the anterior (forward) lunge in 16 recreationally active, college-aged adults¹. The authors concluded that the lunge involves more motion at the knee¹. In its joint kinetics, the forces at the joints, they called it a hip-extensor-dominant exercise¹. Hip extensors are the muscles that move the thigh backward at the hip.

Studies have set several versions of the lunge side by side^2,5,6:

• With or without a stride. In one study, 20 participants either strode forward and pushed back to the start, or lunged up and down with the feet in place².
• Forward or reverse. In nine men, knee and hip angles did not differ between the forward lunge and the reverse lunge⁵.
• Walking. The authors of one study describe the walking lunge and the stationary split squat as alike in how the joints move⁶. The main difference they name is the landing: the walking lunge produces impact forces, while in the split squat both feet stay fixed⁶.

What it loads

The muscles that work hardest

The quadriceps, the group of four muscles on the front of the thigh, straightens the leg at the knee⁷. The gluteus maximus, the large muscle of the buttock, is aligned to extend the hip⁸.

Electromyography (EMG) measures a muscle’s activity by picking up its electrical signals. The authors of one EMG study of 20 participants summed up the externally loaded forward lunge². They concluded that it produces high to very high activity in the quadriceps, the gluteus maximus and the gluteus medius². The gluteus medius is a buttock muscle that lies beneath the gluteus maximus. They found moderate activity in three other muscles²:

• the hamstrings, the three long muscles at the back of the thigh²;
• the gastrocnemius, the large calf muscle²;
• the adductor longus, one of the hip adductors on the inner thigh².

The same authors drew on their own data and earlier studies to give approximate ranges². Each is a share of maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC). That is the hardest effort a person can make with a muscle while the joint does not move.

Muscle	Approximate activity in the loaded forward lunge (% of MVIC)
Quadriceps	40 to 702
Gluteus maximus	40 to 452
Gluteus medius	20 to 452
Adductor longus	20 to 402
Hamstrings	20 to 302
Gastrocnemius	20 to 252

Two readings of the buttock muscles

Sources do not agree on how hard the lunge works the buttock muscles^9,10.

A systematic review, a study that searches for and sums up the research on a question, covered sixteen EMG studies of loaded hip-extension exercises⁹. It classed the traditional lunge and the in-line lunge among the exercises with very high gluteus maximus activation, above 60% of MVIC⁹.

Another study measured 20 men and 20 women, recreationally active and healthy, in the step down, forward lunge and side-step lunge¹⁰. Gluteus maximus and gluteus medius activity was higher than trunk, hip flexor or hamstring activity¹⁰. Its authors still judged the values well below the levels needed for strengthening¹⁰.

What the hamstrings do

The hamstrings extend the hip and bend the knee^7,11. In 27 healthy, physically active volunteers, the forward lunge had one of the largest quadriceps-to-hamstrings EMG ratios of nine exercises, at 9.70¹². In twenty elite female track and field athletes, the lunge was a low-intensity hamstring exercise, below 50% of MVIC¹³.

How step, stride and trunk shift the work

Three studies changed one feature of the lunge and measured the muscles again^2,15,16:

• Step length. In 20 participants using their 12-repetition-maximum weight, a long step gave significantly greater EMG activity than a short step². That held for the quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius, hip adductors and gluteus maximus². A repetition maximum is the heaviest load a person can lift a set number of times.
• Stride. In the same study, gluteus maximus and gluteus medius activity was significantly greater with a stride than with the feet in place².
• Moving or static. Twelve trained young women lunged with an added 30% of body weight¹⁵. Gluteus maximus activation was higher in the step-forward lunge (54% of MVIC) and walking lunge (58%) than in the static lunge (31%)¹⁵.
• Trunk lean. In ten healthy adults, leaning the trunk forward raised gluteus maximus EMG in the lead leg, compared with an erect trunk¹⁶. In the twelve trained women, an inclined trunk also raised activation low in the erector spinae, the long muscles beside the spine¹⁵.

What the knee carries

At the patellofemoral joint, the kneecap slides in a groove on the lower end of the femur (thigh bone)⁷. In 18 subjects lunging with their 12-repetition-maximum weight, a model estimated the force at this part of the knee³. The estimated force rose progressively as the knee bent further and fell as it straightened³.

A study of 20 healthy participants sorted 35 exercises and daily activities into three tiers of patellofemoral loading¹⁷. Lunges fell in the middle tier, where peak loads ranged from 4.3 to 7.1 times body weight¹⁷. Those participants were healthy, not people with patellofemoral pain, which is pain around or behind the kneecap¹⁷.

Three studies compared ways of lunging^18,19,20:

What was compared	Who was studied	What was found
Forward and backward lunge	20 females without symptoms18	Quadriceps force and patellofemoral joint reaction force were larger in the forward lunge18
Front and rear leg	18 healthy participants doing forward lunges19	The rear leg had greater total patellofemoral joint stress than the front leg, whatever the trunk and shank position19
Front knee in front of the toes or behind them	Twenty-five subjects doing a forward step lunge20	Knee in front of the toes gave significantly greater peak patellar tendon stress, quadriceps force and knee moment20

The posterior cruciate ligament, the back one of two ligaments that cross inside the knee, supports the bent, weight-bearing knee⁷. In eighteen subjects lunging with their 12-repetition-maximum weight, a model estimated the force in it at 69 to 765 newtons²¹. That force was significantly greater with a long step than a short step, between 0 and 80 degrees of knee flexion²¹. The model estimated force in the anterior cruciate ligament, the front one of the pair, in the short-step lunge with a stride alone²¹.

Next to the step-up and single-leg squat

In 44 healthy people, muscle activation was measured in the step-up-and-over, the lunge and the single-leg squat²². Activation of the rectus femoris, gluteus maximus and dominant-side gluteus medius rose in that order, with the lunge in the middle²². The rectus femoris is the quadriceps muscle at the front of the thigh.

Measured in people with a hip labral tear

One study compared 21 patients who had a symptomatic tear of the hip labrum on one side with 17 people without symptoms²³. The labrum is a rim of tough tissue around the edge of a joint socket. On the way up from a lunge, average gluteus maximus EMG was lower in the patients, at 51.6% against 71.7% of maximum activity²³.

How the body adapts

Three training studies included lunges^4,24,25:

• Soccer players. In a prospective, randomised study, thirty-two soccer players added forward lunge training to their usual soccer training for six weeks⁴. Walking lunges improved hamstring strength⁴. Jumping lunges led to improvements in 30-metre sprint running⁴.
• Older walkers. Eleven regular walkers aged 54 to 88 walked as usual for four weeks, with no significant change²⁴. Over the next eight weeks they added lunges and descending stairs or slope walking²⁴. Knee extensor strength rose by 18.6% and the 30-second chair stand by 24.2%, and balance improved²⁴.
• Middle-aged women. Twenty middle-aged women did a lunge programme for eight weeks, on either a stable or an unstable surface²⁵. Muscle mass and function of the lower limbs rose significantly in both groups, with no significant difference between them²⁵.

Progressive overload

A 2026 position stand describes progressive overload as the need to increase the stimulus placed on the muscle throughout a training programme²⁶. The studies below changed the load, dose, speed or version of the lunge.

Adding load

One study added loads of up to half of body mass to the lunge¹. In 16 adults, a heavier lunge raised mechanical work in a straight line at the hip and at the ankle, but not the knee¹.

In 16 adults, a heavier lunge raised mechanical work in a straight line at the hip and at the ankle, but not the knee.

A modelling study, which estimates forces inside the body with a model, looked at forces at the knee²⁷. Ten healthy people lunged holding weights of 0.1 to 0.3 times body mass²⁷. The modelled peak forces in the patellar tendon and at the patellofemoral joint rose linearly with the mass²⁷.

The authors of one EMG study describe a sequence from the bodyweight forward lunge to gradually greater external loads when higher intensity is wanted².

Volume, frequency and speed

The training studies above set their doses in different ways^4,24:

• Volume. In the eleven older walkers, the added steps of lunges and of descending stairs or slopes rose gradually from 100 to 1000 per week²⁴.
• Frequency. The soccer players did their lunge training twice a week, and the middle-aged women three times a week^4,25.

One study varied speed. In 42 adults, fast (ballistic) lunges produced more muscle activity than slow controlled ones^28,29. For most muscles, ballistic lunges at a medium load matched controlled lunges at a high load²⁸.

Changing the version

Three sets of authors ordered lunge versions by how much they asked of the body^5,30,31.

From patellofemoral loads calculated in sixteen participants, one group ordered forward lunge versions from lowest to highest load³⁰:

1. minimal knee flexion, 0 to 30 degrees³⁰;
2. moderate knee flexion, 0 to 60 degrees³⁰;
3. a long step with deep knee flexion, 0 to 100 degrees, onto a 10-cm platform³⁰;
4. the same long, deep lunge at ground level³⁰.

From a laboratory study of nine men, a second group ordered hip loading from the single-legged squat to the reverse lunge to the forward lunge⁵. They ordered knee and ankle loading differently: reverse lunge, then forward lunge, then single-legged squat⁵.

In thirty healthy participants, a lunge done with suspension equipment gave significantly greater EMG recruitment of four hip and thigh muscles than a standard lunge³¹. Its authors call the suspended lunge more demanding, and one that can be seen as a progression from the standard lunge³¹.

Connections

The studies on this page measured the lunge at these structures^1,2,27:

• the quadriceps, gluteus maximus and gluteus medius, with high to very high activity in the loaded forward lunge²;
• the hamstrings, gastrocnemius and hip adductors, with moderate activity²;
• the hip, where mechanical work rose with added load in 16 adults¹;
• the knee and patellar tendon, where modelled forces rose with added mass in ten people²⁷;
• the posterior cruciate ligament and anterior cruciate ligament, from model estimates in eighteen subjects²¹.

Related exercise pages are the split squat, the step-up and the single-leg squat^6,22.

Sources

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2. Escamilla RF, Thompson IS, Asuncion R, Bravo J, Chang T, Fournier T, Garcia H, Hockenbery E, Nagasawa K, Ozor J, Snoeberger H, Wilk KE, Bizzini M (2025). Effects of Step Length and Stride Variation During Forward Lunges on Lower-Extremity Muscle Activity.. Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology. doi:10.3390/jfmk10010042 PMID 39982282
3. Escamilla RF, Zheng N, Macleod TD, Edwards WB, Hreljac A, Fleisig GS, Wilk KE, Moorman CT 3rd, Imamura R, Andrews JR (2008). Patellofemoral joint force and stress between a short- and long-step forward lunge.. The Journal of orthopaedic and sports physical therapy. doi:10.2519/jospt.2008.2694 PMID 18978453
4. Jönhagen S, Ackermann P, Saartok T (2009). Forward lunge: a training study of eccentric exercises of the lower limbs.. Journal of strength and conditioning research. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181a00d98 PMID 19387378
5. Comfort P, Jones PA, Smith LC, Herrington L (2015). Joint Kinetics and Kinematics During Common Lower Limb Rehabilitation Exercises.. Journal of athletic training. doi:10.4085/1062-6050-50.9.05 PMID 26418958
6. Stastny P, Lehnert M, Zaatar AM, Svoboda Z, Xaverova Z (2015). Does the Dumbbell-Carrying Position Change the Muscle Activity in Split Squats and Walking Lunges?. Journal of strength and conditioning research. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000000976 PMID 25968228
7. Betts JG, Young KA, Wise JA, Johnson E, Poe B, Kruse DH, Korol O, Johnson JE, Womble M, DeSaix P (2022). Anatomy and Physiology 2e. OpenStax. Link
8. Pourahmadi M, Asadi M, Dommerholt J, Yeganeh A (2020). Changes in the macroscopic morphology of hip muscles in low back pain.. Journal of Anatomy. doi:10.1111/joa.13086 PMID 31475359
9. Neto WK, Soares EG, Vieira TL, Aguiar R, Chola TA, Sampaio VL, Gama EF (2020). Gluteus Maximus Activation during Common Strength and Hypertrophy Exercises: A Systematic Review.. Journal of sports science & medicine. PMID 32132843
10. Bouillon LE, Wilhelm J, Eisel P, Wiesner J, Rachow M, Hatteberg L (2012). Electromyographic assessment of muscle activity between genders during unilateral weight-bearing tasks using adjusted distances.. International journal of sports physical therapy. PMID 23316423
11. Obey MR, Broski SM, Spinner RJ, Collins MS, Krych AJ (2016). Anatomy of the Adductor Magnus Origin. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. doi:10.1177/2325967115625055 PMID 26798764
12. Begalle RL, Distefano LJ, Blackburn T, Padua DA (2012). Quadriceps and hamstrings coactivation during common therapeutic exercises.. Journal of Athletic Training. doi:10.4085/1062-6050-47.4.01 PMID 22889655
13. Tsaklis P, Malliaropoulos N, Mendiguchia J, Korakakis V, Tsapralis K, Pyne D, Malliaras P (2015). Muscle and intensity based hamstring exercise classification in elite female track and field athletes: implications for exercise selection during rehabilitation.. Open access journal of sports medicine. doi:10.2147/OAJSM.S79189 PMID 26170726
14. Jönhagen S, Halvorsen K, Benoit DL (2009). Muscle activation and length changes during two lunge exercises: implications for rehabilitation.. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0838.2007.00692.x PMID 19708966
15. Bezerra ES, Diefenthaeler F, Nunes JP, Sakugawa RL, Heberle I, Moura BM, Moro ARP, Marcolin G, Paoli A (2021). Influence of Trunk Position during Three Lunge Exercises on Muscular Activation in Trained Women.. International journal of exercise science. doi:10.70252/IGJM9937 PMID 34055138
16. Farrokhi S, Pollard CD, Souza RB, Chen YJ, Reischl S, Powers CM (2008). Trunk position influences the kinematics, kinetics, and muscle activity of the lead lower extremity during the forward lunge exercise.. The Journal of orthopaedic and sports physical therapy. doi:10.2519/jospt.2008.2634 PMID 18591759
17. Song K, Scattone Silva R, Hullfish TJ, Silbernagel KG, Baxter JR (2023). Patellofemoral Joint Loading Progression Across 35 Weightbearing Rehabilitation Exercises and Activities of Daily Living.. The American journal of sports medicine. doi:10.1177/03635465231175160 PMID 37272685
18. Goulette D, Griffith P, Schiller M, Rutherford D, Kernozek TW (2021). Patellofemoral joint loading during the forward and backward lunge.. Physical therapy in sport : official journal of the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Sports Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.ptsp.2020.12.001 PMID 33310585
19. Hofmann CL, Holyoak DT, Juris PM (2017). Trunk and Shank Position Influences Patellofemoral Joint Stress in the Lead and Trail Limbs During the Forward Lunge Exercise.. The Journal of orthopaedic and sports physical therapy. doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.6336 PMID 27814666
20. Zellmer M, Kernozek TW, Gheidi N, Hove J, Torry M (2019). Patellar tendon stress between two variations of the forward step lunge.. Journal of sport and health science. doi:10.1016/j.jshs.2016.12.005 PMID 31193251
21. Escamilla RF, Zheng N, Macleod TD, Imamura R, Edwards WB, Hreljac A, Fleisig GS, Wilk KE, Moorman CT 3rd, Paulos L, Andrews JR (2010). Cruciate ligament forces between short-step and long-step forward lunge.. Medicine and science in sports and exercise. doi:10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181d966d4 PMID 20195182
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24. Katsura Y, Takeda N, Inami T, Yamaguchi S, Takahashi S, Nakamura M, Nosaka K (2024). Effects of lunges inserted in walking (eccentric walking) on lower limb muscle strength, physical and cognitive function of regular walkers.. European journal of applied physiology. doi:10.1007/s00421-024-05453-y PMID 38467835
25. Lee J, Kim J (2022). Effects of an 8-week lunge exercise on an unstable support surface on lower-extremity muscle function and balance in middle-aged women.. Physical activity and nutrition. doi:10.20463/pan.2022.0020 PMID 36775647
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27. Hagen M, Van Rossom S, Catelli DS, Verschueren S, Vanrenterghem J (2023). External weight mass and carrying position influence peak patellar tendon force and patellofemoral joint contact force independently during forward lunge.. Clinical biomechanics (Bristol, Avon). doi:10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2023.106127 PMID 37856939
28. Jakobsen MD, Sundstrup E, Andersen CH, Aagaard P, Andersen LL (2013). Muscle activity during leg strengthening exercise using free weights and elastic resistance: effects of ballistic vs controlled contractions.. Human Movement Science. doi:10.1016/j.humov.2012.07.002 PMID 23231756
29. Sundstrup E, Jakobsen MD, Andersen CH, Bandholm T, Thorborg K, Zebis MK, Andersen LL (2014). Evaluation of elastic bands for lower extremity resistance training in adults with and without musculo-skeletal pain.. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. doi:10.1111/sms.12187 PMID 25138624
30. Escamilla RF, Zheng N, MacLeod TD, Imamura R, Wang S, Wilk KE, Yamashiro K, Fleisig GS (2022). Patellofemoral Joint Loading in Forward Lunge With Step Length and Height Variations.. Journal of applied biomechanics. doi:10.1123/jab.2021-0313 PMID 35697336
31. Krause DA, Elliott JJ, Fraboni DF, McWilliams TJ, Rebhan RL, Hollman JH (2018). ELECTROMYOGRAPHY OF THE HIP AND THIGH MUSCLES DURING TWO VARIATIONS OF THE LUNGE EXERCISE: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY.. International journal of sports physical therapy. PMID 30090671

Every source the library cites

Changes

• October 7, 2026 First published.