The Dumbbell Lateral Lunge is a beginner-friendly dumbbell strength exercise that targets the quadriceps and adductors, with the glutes, hamstrings, calves and abdominals working alongside. Here's how to do it right — and what to stop doing.
Primary musclesQuads, Adductors
Secondary musclesGlutes, Hamstrings, Calves, Abs
EquipmentDumbbell
LevelBeginner
TypeStrength
3D demo in the EGON app
01 Execution
How to do the Dumbbell Lateral Lunge
Stand tall with a dumbbell in each hand and a slight bend in your knees.
Brace your abdominals and set your chest up with your head neutral.
Step wide to one side and plant that foot with the toes pointing forward.
Sit down and back into the stepping hip, keeping the other leg straight.
Stop before the knee travels out past the toes, holding an upright torso.
Drive through the heel of the stepping leg back to the start, then switch sides.
02 The payoff
Why it earns its spot
Trains lower body strength in the frontal plane rather than front to back.
Loads one hip at a time while the other leg stretches through the inner thigh.
Builds the lateral hip stability that single leg movement depends on.
03 Don't do this
Common mistakes
Letting the knee track out past the toes, which loads the joint instead of the hip.
Bending the trailing leg, which removes the inner thigh stretch that defines the movement.
Leaning the torso over the stepping leg instead of sitting the hips back.
Taking a step too narrow to reach a real hip angle, which turns it into a shallow squat.
EGON Put it on record
Track it in EGON.
Log every set of the Dumbbell Lateral Lunge, get your PRs detected automatically, earn aura for the work — and climb five leagues of statues, from Stone to Ego.
