Reverse lunge
A lunge stepping backwards rather than forwards — easier on the knee and easier to control.
- Pattern
- Lunge
- Equipment
- Nothing needed
- Space
- Standing room
- Difficulty
- Developing
- Load
- External load
- Side
- One side at a time
What it is
Stand with your feet together. Step one foot back a long way, lower until the back knee is close to the floor, then push through the front foot to return to standing.
Alternate sides, or do a set on one side before swapping.
What it demands
The same single-leg strength and back-hip extension range as a split squat, plus the coordination of stepping and returning under control.
Balance that is being disturbed rather than held, since you arrive in the position rather than setting up in it.
What usually goes wrong
Short steps. As with the split squat, too short a step crowds the front knee and blocks the back hip.
Stepping onto a tightrope. Placing the back foot directly behind the front one removes all side-to-side base. Step back on the same line the foot started on.
Falling into the bottom. The descent should be controlled all the way, not dropped into.
Torso pitching forward as you push back up.
Where it sits
The reverse lunge is worth understanding as a deliberate choice rather than a variation.
Stepping backwards rather than forwards means you are not decelerating your bodyweight onto a leading leg. That reduces the load at the front knee and gives more time to arrange the landing, which makes it the more controllable of the two and generally the one to learn first. A forward lunge, by contrast, is a braking movement.
It follows naturally from the split squat — same position, now with a step to get there — and sits alongside the step-up as the two main single-leg options that need nothing but floor.