What Muscles Do Lunges Work?

The main lunges muscles worked are the quads, glutes and adductors, but the lunge variation you choose determines which muscles work the hardest.
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The lunge is one of the absolute best lower-body exercises to build strength and stability in your legs and hips. As a compound exercise, they require movement in your knees and hips and activate more than 10 different muscles in your lower body.

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But there are a lot of muscles in your lower body. So what muscles does a lunge work, exactly? The answer largely depends on the type of lunge variation you do — and how you do it.

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Forward, reverse and side lunges, for instance, all have different main muscles worked. Meanwhile, slight form adjustments like taking bigger or smaller steps affect what muscles do the brunt of the work.

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The primary muscles used during lunges are your quadriceps, a group of four muscles that includes the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and vastus intermedius. Lunges also work your glutes — gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus.

Here's your guide to which muscles you'll target with which lunge exercise.

The Main Lunge Muscles Worked

Lunges work what muscles? When it comes to your lower body, basically, all of them. That said, the primary lunge muscles worked are the quadriceps, gluteus maximus and adductor magnus (in the inner thighs).

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The quads and glutes straighten your knees and hips to help you push out of the bottom of the move. The adductors, meanwhile, pull your thigh toward your midline, so you end your reps standing tall with your legs together.

Lunges also work the hamstrings, gluteus medius and, to a lesser extent, the calves.

The hamstrings play several important roles in your lunge, including helping you slow down as you lower toward the ground and working with the gluteus maximus and adductor magnus to extend your hips as you stand up at the top of the exercise.

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The hamstrings also work with the gluteus medius (your side glute muscle) to stabilize your hips and knees. When you push through the balls of your feet to rise to standing, you work your calves.

While lunges primarily work the muscles in your lower body, everything is connected. This means that you're using your lats, obliques and other core muscles to stabilize and coordinate your movements.

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Here's a breakdown of the four most common lunge variations and which muscles they work the hardest.

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1. Forward Lunge

Region Lower Body
  1. Start standing up tall, then step a few feet forward with your left foot.
  2. Bend both knees to 90 degrees, with your back knee hovering just above the ground and your front knee either over your ankle.
  3. You can keep your hands on your hips or hanging by your sides.
  4. Hold for a beat before pushing off your front foot, returning back to standing and repeating on the other leg.

Main Muscles Worked

  • Quadriceps
  • Adductors
  • Gluteus medius

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The forward lunge is a knee-dominant variation, meaning it works your knees and quads more than it does your hips and glutes. It also puts less emphasis on the backside of your body, including your hamstrings and calves. It does, however, work the side glutes to a higher degree than some other variations do.

Tip

Choose this exercise if you want to zero in on your quads.

2. Reverse Lunge

Region Lower Body
  1. Stand up tall with your back straight and hands on hips for stability.
  2. Step back a few feet onto the ball of your left foot, keeping the right leg planted.
  3. Hold for a second before pushing off your back foot and returning to standing.
  4. Repeat on the right leg.

Main Muscles Worked

  • Gluteus maximus
  • Adductors

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The reverse lunge is a hip-dominant variation, meaning it will light up your glutes while putting less stress on your quads and knees. While the hamstrings don't work a ton here, they do work harder in reverse lunges than they do in forward ones.

Tip

This leg exercise is ideal if you want to focus on your glutes or have knee pain during front lunges.

3. Side Lunge

Region Lower Body
  1. From standing, root your right foot into the ground and step your left foot out to the side.
  2. Bend your left knee, keeping it in line with your left foot. You can have your hands on your hips or hanging on either side of the bent leg.
  3. Push off your left leg and return to standing.

Main Muscles Worked

  • Adductors
  • Quadriceps
  • Gluteus medius

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The inner thighs and quads do most of the work here. The side-to-side motion also gets your gluteus medius involved. It's important to include some lateral movement in every workout.

Tip

Choose this move if you've mastered the lateral squat and are ready to add some impact to your moves.

4. Walking Lunge

Region Lower Body
  1. Start standing up tall, then step a few feet forward with your left foot.
  2. Bend both knees to 90 degrees, with your back knee hovering just above the ground and your front knee either over your ankle.
  3. Instead of pushing off the front foot (like in a forward lunge), push off your back foot and take another step forward.
  4. Continue walking forward, alternating which leg you're lunging with.

Main Muscles Worked

  • Quadriceps
  • Adductors
  • Gluteus medius

Walking lunges are a lot like repeating forward lunges, and they work your muscles that way. Expect to build your quads and strengthen your knees. You'll also build tremendous single-leg stability.

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Tip

Do this on-the-move exercise as a way to progress your forward lunges.

How to Emphasize Certain Muscles With Lunges

The really cool part of lunges is that, by changing the size of your steps and even tweaking your back position, you can control which muscles lunges work more or less. Here's how form adjustments affect what muscles you target in lunges and where you should feel your body working the hardest:

  • More forward lean‌ = more glutes
  • More upright torso‌ = more quads
  • Bigger step forward/back‌ = more glutes
  • Smaller step forward/back‌ = more quads
  • Bigger step to side‌ = more adductors
  • Smaller step to side‌ = more glutes

3 Other Benefits of Lunges

1. Muscle Gain

One of the biggest benefits of lunges is that they help you build muscle in your legs and butt. The combination of heavy load, time under tension and eccentric emphasis is a winning combination for muscle growth. You can use different variations to focus on the glutes or quads.

Tip

Increase the intensity of your lunges by holding a set of dumbbells or loaded barbell.

2. Functional Strength

Lunges are a highly functional movement, which means getting better at them can improve athletic performance and make activities of daily life easier.

Running, biking and simply walking up and down stairs are all very similar movements to lunges. Building strength and stability helps your muscles and joints tackle these other activities with grace and ease.

Think of how many activities you do with both legs positioned evenly. Not very many, right? Most lower body movements we perform involve some sort of split or single-leg stance. If you only train with bilateral (two leg) movements, you're missing out on many benefits that would make you stronger outside the gym.

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What Muscles Do Lunges Work?

3. Injury Prevention

By increasing stability at both the hip and knee joint, lunges can help reduce the risk of knee injuries. If you're prone to knee pain, start with reverse lunges. Take a big step with each rep and, over time, you may be able to do more knee-dominant exercise like forward or front lunges.

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