So you’ve mastered the squat and the deadlift, and now the final exercise in our three part basic booty builder series is the lunge. So many people hate doing lunges, myself included, but it’s important to incorporate a variety of movements and exercises into your routine to hit the muscles from different angles as well as keeping yourself challenged.

Lunges are a unilateral movement, which are especially great to work into your routine to help fix any imbalances you may have. Other great examples of this for leg day include single leg leg press as well as single leg exercises on hamstring curls and leg extensions.

As with all of the other movements we’ve shown so far, it’s important to first master the technique before adding any weight. Start by working on this movement with just your body weight, then my adding dumbbells and kettlebells before then working up to barbells. There are so many great variations of lunges you can incorporate into your routine too once you’ve got the hang of the basics including walking lunges, reverse lunges and split squats.

To perform the basic split lunge as shown in this video:
  • As with the other exercises shown in this series, engage your lats and take a deep breath in and brace to first create torso tightness
  • Step your foot forward, with your foot placement dependent on which muscles you want to focus on more. Tracking your knees further forward over your feet will place more emphasis on the quads, whereas taking a wider stance and sitting back into the movement will use more glute recruitment
  • Then lunge down into the movement, and push back up as your exhale

That’s it for our booty building basic series! While they may be classified as “basic” moves that you should master and include in your routine (if you are able to perform safely) they are definitely anything but easy! Remember, with all of these exercises take your time to master the movement before progressing with the weight; ego lifting can result in injury but also means that you’re not properly hitting the target muscles and therefore also won’t be making as much progress.

If you have any questions on any of these please feel free to comment below. Now go train!!

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Sophie is the owner and creator of The Beautiful Existence. A Melbourne based self proclaimed nerd, gym junkie and lover of all things creative, tasty and well designed!

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