The lunge is one of the best accessory lifts going for your legs. It trains the quads, glutes, and hamstrings one side at a time, which evens out left-to-right strength imbalances and sharpens your balance and coordination in a way a bilateral squat can’t. Walking lunges are the version most people picture, and they hammer the legs, but they eat up floor space and they bother plenty of lifters’ knees.
That knee stress is the main reason I swap them out. Stepping forward forces the front knee to brake against your momentum, and that shearing force flares up cranky knees fast. Add in the balance demand, the open floor you need for walking lunges, and the days you’d rather just load a machine, and there are plenty of reasons to reach for something else.
Below are the nine lunge alternatives I’d actually program, from no-equipment options to loaded machine work. I picked them on how closely they match a lunge, how easy they are on the knees, what gear they need, and whether you can keep loading them over time. Here’s the full list before we get into each one.
Table of Contents
- 1 The 9 Best Lunge Alternatives
- 2 Reasons to Choose a Lunge Alternative
- 3 Muscles Worked by Lunges
- 4 Lunge Alternatives: FAQs
- 5 Key Takeaways
- 6 Other Alternative Exercises
- 6.1 The 9 Best Pendlay Row Alternatives
- 6.2 The 7 Best Deadlift Alternatives
- 6.3 The 9 Best Barbell Row Alternatives
- 6.4 The 10 Best Lying Leg Curl Alternatives
- 6.5 The 12 Best Pull-Up Alternatives
- 6.6 The 10 Best Lat Pulldown Alternatives
- 6.7 The 8 Best Hammer Curl Alternatives
- 6.8 The 8 Best Ab Rollout Alternatives
- 6.9 The 10 Best Dumbbell Pullover Alternatives
- 6.10 The 10 Best Bent Over Row Alternatives
- 6.11 The 8 Best Decline Bench Press Alternatives
- 6.12 The 10 Best Romanian Deadlift Alternatives
- 6.13 The 10 Best Bulgarian Split Squat Alternatives
- 6.14 The 10 Best Leg Extension Alternatives
- 6.15 The 10 Best Front Squat Alternatives
The 9 Best Lunge Alternatives
- Split Squats
- Step-Ups
- Box Squats
- Reverse Lunges
- Sled Pulls
- Goblet Squats
- Unilateral Leg Presses
- Unilateral Romanian Deadlifts
- Bulgarian Split Squats
1. Split Squats
When to Perform Split Squats
Split squats are very similar to lunges, except your feet do not move. In a lunge, the feet step into a staggered position for each rep. In a split squat, the feet remain static as your legs lower and lift the weight. Split squats may be more comfortable for people experiencing knee pain when performing front lunges. People struggling with balance during a lunge also find the split squat to be easier. If you want the full rundown of how the two stack up, see our split squat vs lunge guide.
How to Perform Split Squats
- If you are using weight for the exercise, prepare for the movement by loading a barbell across your shoulders or holding dumbbells or kettlebells at your sides.
- Stand with your feet together, your back straight, and your gaze looking forward.
- Stagger your stance by taking a big step forward, keeping your toes in line with your knees.
- Brace your abdominals and bend at the knees to lower your body towards the ground. Stop descending when your back knee is close to the ground, but your front knee is still behind your toes.
- Keep your feet where they are and push through the back foot to lift yourself back up to your starting position.
- Pause without moving the feet before lowering again.
- Repeat for the desired number of reps. Reset by stepping your feet back together and then repeat on the opposite leg.
For a visual aid, check out this video from the University of Bristol demonstrating the correct form for a standard split squat.
Tips for Split Squats
- Pay close attention to your foot spacing so the weight stays loaded onto your front leg.
- Push through the ball of your front foot when ascending.
- Keep your hips and feet pointing forward throughout each rep.
2. Step-Ups
When to Perform Step-Ups
Step-ups engage the same muscle groups as a lunge, which makes them a great swap. Stepping up rather than forward puts less strain on the knees, and pushing down through your working leg against gravity gives you a bigger range of motion while keeping your front shin vertical to avoid injury. You can do this exercise with dumbbells, kettlebells, a barbell, or just your body weight.
How to Perform Step-Ups
- If you are using weight for the exercise, prepare for the movement by loading a barbell across your shoulders or holding dumbbells or kettlebells at your sides.
- Stand in front of a stable flat bench, box, or another secure platform. Choose a platform height you can step onto safely without losing your balance. You should be able to maintain an upright spine and neutral pelvis when stepping onto the platform.
- Tuck your chin and gaze straight ahead to protect your upper spine. Brace your abdominals and pre-tension your legs and glutes.
- Place one foot on the platform. Ensure your knee doesn’t move in front of your toes and your leg is bent to 90 degrees. Push evenly throughout your entire foot.
- Push down into your elevated foot to lift your back leg off the floor. Squeeze your quads and glutes to complete the exercise. Both feet should be on the platform.
- Maintain a strong core and neutral spine as you reverse the exercise. Bend your knees and soften your hips and ankles as you step down from the platform.
- Repeat on the same side or alternate legs for each rep.
- Perform an even amount of reps and sets per side.
For a visual aid, check out this video from Breaking Muscle demonstrating the correct form for a weighted step-up.
Tips for Step-Ups
- Your front leg should do all of the work. Let your back leg trail behind you without pressing off the floor to assist.
- Tilt your torso forward slightly to keep your weight centered over your front foot.
- Start with bodyweight and add load once your balance is dialed in.
3. Box Squats
When to Perform Box Squats
Box squats are popular among lifters of all experience levels. For beginners, they are a great, knee-friendly way to lift heavy weights. Advanced lifters find them useful for building explosive strength out of the bottom of a squat. You set your preferred range of motion by varying the height of the box or platform. Sitting back onto a box eliminates bouncing or momentum, protects your knees, and forces you to use explosive strength to lift the weight.
How to Perform Box Squats
- Set up a barbell in a squat rack or smith machine at a height just below your shoulders.
- Place a plyometric box or flat bench a few feet behind the rack. Check that the height allows you to bend your knees to 90 degrees when seated.
- Face the barbell with the box behind you. Grab the barbell with a pronated grip and your hands just outside shoulder-width.
- Step underneath the barbell and unrack it. It should rest on your upper back muscles. Step backwards so you are a few inches in front of your platform.
- Stand tall with your feet spaced just wider than hip-width and a soft bend in your knees.
- Tuck your chin, brace your abdominals and grip the floor with your feet. Retract your shoulder blades and tense your legs.
- Bend your hips, knees, and ankles to squat down while keeping an upright spine. Stop when your glutes make contact with the platform.
- Pause for 1-2 seconds on the platform to eliminate your momentum.
- Push through all four corners of your feet and squeeze your glutes and legs to begin the ascent. Extend your knees as you come up.
- Lock out the squat by extending your hips and squeezing your legs and glutes while keeping a neutral spine.
- Repeat for the desired number of reps and sets.
Check out this video from Mind Pump TV for a visual guide to performing the weighted box squat.
Tips for Box Squats
- Finish each rep by pushing your hips forward, with your pelvis tucked and your hip bones pointing forward and up.
- Don’t let your lower back sway. Failing to tuck the pelvis puts excess strain on your lumbar spine.
4. Reverse Lunges
When to Perform Reverse Lunges
Reverse lunges are a knee-friendly variation of the standard forward lunge and the closest swap on this list to a walking lunge. You step backward for each rep instead of forward, which takes a lot of pressure off the knee since it doesn’t have to use shearing or braking force to stop forward momentum. Reverse lunges emphasize your glute medius and hamstrings, while forward lunges focus more on your quads. If you want to isolate your posterior chain and protect your knees while lunging, the reverse lunge is a great choice.
How to Perform Reverse Lunges
- If you are using weight, prepare for the movement by loading a barbell across your shoulders or holding dumbbells or kettlebells at your sides.
- Stand with your feet together, your back straight, and your gaze looking forward.
- Distribute your weight evenly and grip the floor with your feet for a stable foundation.
- Brace the core, glutes, and legs. Take a big step backward while bending your knees, hips and ankles.
- Lower yourself towards the floor until your back knee hovers about an inch off the floor and both legs are bent to 90 degrees. Your front foot should remain firmly planted. Your back foot will be pressing into the ball of the foot with the heel lifted.
- Pause. Keep the chest lifted and push through your back foot to engage your glutes and hamstrings and step your feet back together. You should now be at your starting position.
- Repeat on the same side or alternate legs for each rep.
- Perform an even amount of reps and sets per side.
For a visual aid, here’s a useful video from Bodybuilding.com demonstrating the proper form for a barbell reverse lunge.
Tips for Reverse Lunges
- Keep your spine neutral and upright. Don’t lean forward or round your back.
- When stepping backward, keep your toes in line with your hips.
- Maintain hip-width distance between your feet for an even, stable base.
5. Sled Pulls
When to Perform Sled Pulls
Sled pulls, or sled drags, aren’t an obvious choice for a lunge alternative, but they’re a highly effective leg workout and a staple for Strongman athletes. They let you move heavy weight without straining your knee joints. Dragging the sled takes minimal knee flexion but still gives your legs an intense workout, and it strengthens the muscles and tendons around your knees, which makes it a great choice for all experience levels.
How to Perform Sled Pulls
- Load your weight sled with the desired amount of weight. Check that you have enough space to pull the sled a fair distance without disturbing other people in the gym.
- Attach a shoulder or hand harness securely to the sled. Face the sled and take a few steps back until the harness is taut. Either hold the handles or secure them around your hips if you don’t want to challenge your grip strength.
- Lean back slightly until you feel tension in your glutes and hamstrings.
- Keep your spine neutral, and your chin tucked. Start to take small steps backward to drag the sled.
- Keep a constant tempo throughout the exercise. Perform as many laps of your chosen sled pull space as desired.
For a visual aid, here’s a useful video from Critical Bench.
Tips for Sled Pulls
- This simple-looking exercise is deceptively taxing on your muscles and nervous system, so warm up with at least 5-10 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio first.
- To target your quads more, run it as a forward sled drag by facing away from the sled and stepping forward.
6. Goblet Squats
When to Perform Goblet Squats
Goblet squats use the same muscle groups as a lunge, which makes them another effective alternative. They’re a bilateral exercise, so you work both legs in unison off a wider, more stable base that asks less of your balance. That setup makes it easier to keep an upright spine and vertical shins, which lowers your risk of a knee injury. Goblet squats are a functional exercise and a great way to build stronger glutes.
How to Perform Goblet Squats
- Stand tall with your feet hip-width distance apart and your toes pointing forward.
- Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell close to your chest. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and keep a neutral spine.
- Bend your knees and push your hips back to squat down. Squat as low as you can while maintaining an upright posture and vertical shins. If your back starts to round or your heels start to lift, you have gone too far for your level of mobility.
- Pause for a second at the bottom of the squat. Maintain tension in your legs.
- Squeeze your glutes and hamstrings and push through your feet to stand back up.
- Repeat for the desired number of sets and reps.
Check out this useful video from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) for a visual guide to performing goblet squats.
Tips for Goblet Squats
- Keep your knees in line with your toes the whole way down.
- Don’t let your knees cave in or splay out, which throws the load off the right muscles and onto your knee joints.
7. Unilateral Leg Presses
When to Perform Unilateral Leg Presses
The leg press lets you train one leg at a time without having to balance or stabilize your stance on every rep, which makes the single-leg version a great lunge alternative for beginners or anyone managing an injury. It evens out the strength of your left and right legs and lets you load heavier weight with less risk. For a closer look at what it trains, see the leg press muscles worked, and if your gym doesn’t have a leg press, our leg press alternatives cover the rest.
How to Perform Unilateral Leg Presses
- Position yourself on a leg press machine. Space your feet about hip-width distance apart and press the weight out of its safety latches.
- Place your non-working foot on the floor. Slowly bend your working foot to lower the weight platform towards you until your knee is bent at 90 degrees.
- Push through your foot and squeeze your quads to press the platform away. Stop when the leg is straight but do not lock out your knees.
- Repeat for the desired number of reps and then switch legs.
For a visual guide to the single-leg leg press, here’s a useful video from Scott Herman Fitness.
Tips for Unilateral Leg Presses
- Start with your weaker leg and match the work on your more dominant side.
- Never lock out your knees on the leg press, which risks hyperextension and injury.
8. Unilateral Romanian Deadlifts
When to Perform Unilateral Romanian Deadlifts
Single-leg Romanian deadlifts give your hamstrings and glutes a great workout. They also challenge your balance and stability without excessive knee flexion. If you have knee pain but want to do unilateral exercises to improve muscle imbalances, the unilateral Romanian deadlift is a great alternative to lunges. You can do this exercise holding dumbbells, kettlebells, a barbell, or with your body weight.
How to Perform Unilateral Romanian Deadlifts
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart. If using weights, grip a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand or load a light barbell across your shoulders.
- Shift your weight into your weaker leg by tilting forward and allowing your stronger leg to lift off the ground behind you.
- Keep a small bend in both knees and keep both hips facing straight forward rather than allowing the hip of your non-working leg to splay out.
- Keep a straight back as you tilt forward. Stop when your torso is parallel to the ground.
- Brace your abdominals and push through your standing foot to lift back up.
- Repeat for the desired number of reps and then swap legs.
For a visual aid, here’s a useful video demonstrating the single-leg Romanian deadlift.
Tips for Unilateral Romanian Deadlifts
- If you’re struggling to balance, fix your gaze on a point in front of you to help your vestibular system keep you steady.
- Fully extend your hip at the top of every rep so you don’t cut your range of motion short.
9. Bulgarian Split Squats
When to Perform Bulgarian Split Squats
Bulgarian split squats are a split squat variation where you elevate your back foot on a box or bench. Propping your rear foot up increases the range of motion for your front leg and recruits more muscle fibers. Compared to lunges, they’re easier to perform with vertical shins and put less shearing force on the knee. This one is a great lunge alternative if you want to challenge your coordination and balance without straining your knees. For a deeper rundown of what it trains, see our breakdown of the Bulgarian split squat muscles worked, and if you want more options like it, check our Bulgarian split squat alternatives.
How to Perform Bulgarian Split Squats
- Stand in front of a bench or stable platform with your feet hip-width apart.
- Grab two dumbbells and hold them at your sides using a neutral grip. This exercise can also be done with kettlebells or a barbell.
- Take a step forward with one foot to get into a split stance. Carefully lift your back leg and place it on the platform.
- Stand up straight, brace your core, and don’t allow the lower back to arch. Keep your gaze straight ahead and your chin tucked.
- Slowly bend your front knee so that both legs descend towards the ground.
- Stop when your front knee is bent to a 90-degree angle and your back knee is hovering just above the ground.
- Push through the front foot to engage the quads and lift yourself back to your starting position.
- Complete as many reps as desired on your first side before switching to the other leg.
- Complete as many sets as desired, ensuring you complete an even number of sets per leg.
With unilateral exercises, start on your weaker or less dominant side and match the work on your stronger side. This video shows you how to perform the Bulgarian split squat with dumbbells.
Tips for Bulgarian Split Squats
- Don’t lean back into your rear leg. Most of your weight should push through your front foot.
- Set your feet in line with your hips rather than directly in front of each other. Think two train tracks, not a single tightrope, for a safer, more stable base.
Reasons to Choose a Lunge Alternative
There are plenty of reasons you might swap out lunges. Maybe you want to isolate a particular muscle group, use minimal equipment, or just change things up. The most common reason people look for an alternative is knee pain. Forward lunges put a lot of pressure on the knees because of shearing force, the ‘braking’ effect required to stop the knee’s forward motion, which can strain the joint.
Even with healthy, pain-free knees, the alternatives earn their place. Some isolate certain muscle groups better than a lunge does, and rotating different exercises into your training keeps your muscles adapting and makes you a more well-rounded, resilient athlete.
Muscles Worked by Lunges
Lunges are a compound lower body exercise that emphasizes multiple muscle groups and challenges your balance, coordination and endurance.
- Primary muscles used: Hamstrings, Glutes, Quadriceps
- Secondary muscles used: Calves, Abdominals, Spinal Erectors
Lunge Alternatives: FAQs
What’s a good walking lunge alternative?
Reverse lunges are the closest swap for walking lunges. They train the same pattern with far less stress on the knees, since stepping backward removes the braking force that walking lunges put on the front knee. If you’re short on floor space, step-ups and Bulgarian split squats give you the same single-leg work without traveling across the gym. And if your knees are the problem, the unilateral leg press lets you train one leg at a time with no balance demand at all.
What machine can I use instead of lunges?
The unilateral leg press is the best machine option. It trains one leg at a time like a lunge, but the machine handles your balance, so you can load it heavier with less risk. A Smith machine reverse lunge is the next pick if you’d rather keep the stepping pattern against a fixed bar path. Both let you push close to failure without worrying about tipping over.
What’s the difference between split squats and lunges?
A split squat is a lunge in which the feet do not move. In a lunge, the feet step out into a staggered position for each rep. In a split squat, the feet remain static as the legs lower and lift the weight.
Why do lunges hurt my knees?
When you step forward in a standard lunge, your front knee has to ‘brake’ against the forward momentum. This forward motion strains the knee joint and causes pain or injury for some lifters. Forward lunges also cause instability in the knee as it wobbles side to side when you are finding your balance. The lateral motion causes discomfort in your knees.
Are lunges better than squats?
Lunges and squats are both effective exercises that serve different purposes. Lunges better address lateral muscle imbalances, improve balance and coordination, and strengthen your small stabilizing muscles. Bilateral squats allow you to lift heavier weights and build greater overall strength and muscle mass.
Key Takeaways
Match the alternative to why you’re skipping lunges in the first place. Training with no equipment? Split squats and reverse lunges need nothing but the floor. Want to load the legs heavy? Box squats and goblet squats let you keep adding weight session to session. Need a machine that takes balance out of it? The unilateral leg press is the one to use. Working on balance and single-leg strength? Bulgarian split squats and unilateral Romanian deadlifts are the hardest test of it. You don’t need all nine. Pick the two or three that fit your equipment and your knees, then rotate them.
Other Alternative Exercises
If you enjoyed this post, check out our other roundups of the best alternatives for other exercises.
