Dumbbell Lateral Lunge
oec:dumbbell-lateral-lunge
A unilateral lower-body exercise where you step out laterally and squat onto one leg while holding a dumbbell, building frontal-plane strength and hip mobility.
Generated by gemini-3.8-flash from the sources below. No person has checked this record. Don't rely on it for safety.
Also called: Dumbbell Side Lunge, Dumbbell Side Squat
How to do it
Setup
- Stand tall with feet hip-width apart holding a dumbbell in one hand at your side or in a goblet position at chest level.
- Engage your core and keep your chest lifted with shoulders pulled down and back.
Movement
- Take a wide step out to the side with one leg, keeping both feet pointed straight ahead or only slightly turned out.
- Hinge at the hips and bend the stepping knee, lowering your pelvis back and down over the working foot while keeping the trailing leg completely straight.
- Descend until your working thigh is approximately parallel to the floor, ensuring your heel stays firmly planted.
- Push forcefully through the midfoot and heel of the working leg to drive yourself back up to the starting hip-width stance.
Breathing
Inhale as you step out and lower into the lunge, and exhale as you press back to the starting position.
Cues
- Sit back into the working hip.
- Keep the trailing leg straight.
- Keep both feet flat on the floor.
- Drive the floor away to return.
Common faults
- Allowing the heel of the stepping foot to lift off the floor.
- Shift your weight back into your hip and midfoot rather than driving excessively forward onto the toes.
- Collapsing the working knee inward into valgus alignment.
- Track the working knee directly in line with your second toe throughout the descent and ascent.
- Rounding the lumbar spine under the load of the dumbbell.
- Brace your core, hinge cleanly at the hips, and maintain a neutral spine with an upright chest.
Safety
- Clear ample floor space on both sides before initiating lateral steps.
- Ensure adductor and groin flexibility is warmed up properly before using heavier external loads.
Muscles
Joints
- Hip: Flexion, Extension, Abduction, Adduction
- Knee: Flexion, Extension
- Ankle: Dorsiflexion, Plantarflexion
Details
- Movement
- Lunge, Squat
- Modality
- Strength, Hypertrophy
- Mechanics
- compound
- Force
- push
- Laterality
- unilateral
- Kinetic chain
- closed
- Level
- intermediate
- Equipment
- Dumbbell
- Record
- Repetitions and Load
- Load
- external, total
Related
- part of Dumbbell Multi-Planar Lunge
- variation of Dumbbell Lunge
- progression of Lateral Squat
- substitute for Slider Lateral Lunge
Sources
- wger: Dumbbell Side Squat, by AlucardEvil40 (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
This record: CC-BY-SA-4.0.