What you'll gain

• Builds glute and quad strength one leg at a time.

• Exposes and corrects left-right strength imbalances.

• Develops single-leg balance and hip stability for sport and daily life.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. 1

   Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart, hands on your hips or relaxed at your sides.

2. 2

   Step forward with one leg into a long stride, landing softly on the heel and rolling onto the foot.

3. 3

   Lower your back knee straight down toward the floor until both knees form roughly 90-degree angles.

4. 4

   Keep your torso upright with your front knee tracking over your front foot at the bottom.

5. 5

   Push through the front heel to drive yourself back up and step the front foot back to the start.

6. 6

   Alternate legs each rep or finish all reps on one side before switching, depending on the program.

Common Mistakes

• Letting the front knee cave inward, which strains the knee and shifts work away from the glutes.

• Taking too short a step forward, forcing the front knee to push way past the toes and stressing the joint.

• Leaning the torso forward over the front leg, which loads the lower back instead of the legs.

• Slamming the back knee into the floor instead of stopping just above it under control.

About This Exercise

The forward lunge is the most common single-leg exercise in any program. By stepping forward and dropping the back knee toward the floor, you train the glutes and quads of the front leg while challenging the balance and stability of both legs. It's the foundation pattern for every walking lunge, reverse lunge, and split squat that follows. For an app or coaching platform, this clip belongs in any beginner onboarding flow, leg-day program, and bodyweight track. It's also a clean teaching piece for the lunge pattern itself — making sure new users learn the knee position and torso angle before progressing to loaded variations. Ship it as a base asset and link it to deeper lunge content downstream.

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