If there’s one video clip that stands out from my early exposure to bodybuilding, almost 20 years ago, it’s Ronnie Coleman lunging up and down a Texan carpark. In 40° heat. With 100kg on his back. At the end of his leg workout.
After an eye-wateringly intense session of squats, presses and extensions, most people would call it a day. Coleman would take a barbell (legends say sometimes loaded up to around 165kg) and lunge. Not for a few lacklustre reps, mind you – for hundred-metre sets.
Since then it’s been ingrained in me that walking lunges are the optimal leg day ‘finisher’. I think they might even be the best lower-body lift. Full stop.
Not to be limited by barbell availability, in his ‘The Unbelievable’ workout video, Coleman took a pair of 30kg dumbbells in hand and managed a full 400m for dropping the weights.
If there’s any takeaway from Ronnie’s ‘lightweight’ leg day crescendo, it’s that you should be lunging. Often.
Walking Lunge Benefits
They’re one of the few lower-body exercises that tick almost every box at once – muscle, stability, coordination and real-world movement. Each step is a controlled fall and catch. Your quads and glutes do the heavy lifting, your hamstrings support, your calves stabilise, and your trunk has to stay locked in to keep you upright.
Each leg works independently, exposing imbalances and forcing them to pull their weight.
And because you’re moving through space, not standing still, you’re training locomotion – something most gym programmes completely miss.
- Quads, glutes, hamstrings – primary drivers through knee and hip extension
- Calves and ankles – stabilise each landing and push-off
- Core – resists rotation and keeps your torso stacked
- Stability – single-leg loading improves balance and joint control
- Coordination – rhythm, stride length and control under fatigue
- Locomotion – builds strength while moving, not just standing still
- Conditioning – high-rep sets quickly become a full-body effort, jacking up your heart rate
Walking Lunge Variations
Barbell Back Rack
Coleman’s ‘favourite’ version. Max load, high demand on trunk stability. Not to be trifled with, and you’ll definitely want to master the art of safely ‘bailing’ out before taking a heavy bar for a walk.
Dumbbell Farmer’s Grip
More accessible, easier to bail from. Great for building volume without the spinal loading of a barbell. Grip strength can become a limiting factor, so you can use straps – or use heavy walking lunges to build your grip strength.
Dumbbell Front Rack
Cleaning the dumbbells up into the front rack position at the shoulders increases core activation, demand ‘anti-flexion’ to keep you upright, building those postural stabilising muscles one step at a time.
Bodyweight
Underrated. Perfect for beginners, warm-ups, or high-rep finishers where kit is limited.You can do these anywhere, and we suggest that you do. Try an unbroken 400m round and then tell us that ‘bodyweight training is for beginners’.
The Bottom Line
You don’t need to lunge across a Texas car park under a 165kg barbell. But if you want stronger, more capable legs you could do a lot worse than putting one foot in front of the other.
With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.
As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.
Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.
You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.
