Execution Cues:
Walking Lunges:
- Begin by standing tall and upright with your feet in line with one another.
- Start the movement by shifting your weight into one hip/leg and stepping out with the other. The direction of the leg should be slightly outward, abducting from your midline rather than in a perfectly straight path. Keep your trunk and hips stable through the dynamism.
- Your primary leg (the one stepping out) should contact the ground a moderate distance from the support foot (the stationary one) with a soft heel strike followed by a "catch" of your bodyweight. This deceleration should happen easily with a natural shift into the eccentric of a single leg squat pattern.
- From here, the rep will look very similar to a split squat in that the eccentric will be controlled using both legs as support and sinking down until the back knee is about an inch off the ground. In this bottom position, both knee joints should be ~90º flexion (can vary depending on goal) and your pelvis should be neutral rather than in extension. The primary leg's quad and glute will be bearing the majority of the load while the support leg's quad and hip flexor are acting as important stabilizers.
- From the bottom of the rep, powerfully extend and drive up. Your weight should begin shifting from the support foot/leg to the primary as you continue through the concentric. At the same time, press off with the support foot to shift your movement from strictly vertical to also horizontal.
- Once you are fully stable on your primary foot, lift your support foot off the ground and bring it back in line with the other. You should now be standing tall and upright again.
Split Squats:
- Begin with your legs split in the sagittal plane (one foot in front of your hips and the other behind). The primary (front) foot should be flat on the floor while the support (back) foot is on the ball with the heel elevated. Hips should be square and level. Weight should be slightly forward but mostly evenly distributed between the legs.
- Start the eccentric by dropping your hips straight down in between your feet. The primary knee and hip should begin flexing. The support knee should also be flexing but the hip will remain mostly neutral. Weight should shift into the primary leg more the deeper into the range-of-motion you get.
- Continue the eccentric until the back knee is about an inch off the floor. In this bottom position, both knee joints should be ~90º flexion (can vary depending on goal) and your pelvis should be neutral rather than in extension. The primary leg's quad and glute will be bearing the majority of the load while the support leg's quad and hip flexor are acting as important stabilizers.
- From the bottom of the rep, extend up in a slow, controlled manner while keeping the load equalized between primary and support legs. Continue driving up until you're back to the top of the rep with both knees mostly extended and your trunk/hip position is stable.
Key Similarities:
- Single leg squat patterns
- Quad and glute dominant
- Require very little in the way of prerequisite strength or mobility
- Low technical requirements
- Minimal risk of injury
- Can easily be scaled up to increase intensity
- Accommodate a large variety of modalities for adding load
Key Differences:
- Walking Lunges are dynamic while Split Squats are static
- Split Squats are more stable and require less in the way of balance
- Lunges put more stress on the joints due to the increased forces of acceleration/deceleration which may not be ideal for those dealing with knee/hip/ankle issues. Split squats are much more joint friendly.
- Split squats are more easily adjustable for varying biases like more quad or more glute focus within the rep.
- Waling Lunges will require more open space to perform whereas Split Squats have a small footprint.
- Tempo manipulations are easier with split squats.
- Tension is constant with split squats leading for a greater efficiency for metabolic stress. Walking Lunges require breaking the tension briefly which allows the working muscles a momentary break.
- Walking Lunges can more effectively be superset with most bilateral exercises due to them being alternating, but that presents some issues for Split Squats with the fatigue/recovery being unequal between legs.
Primary Use Case for Exercise A:
- Hypertrophy of the Quads and Glutes
Primary Use Case for Exercise B:
- Hypertrophy of the Quads and Glutes