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Sports & Fitness vocabulary · Exercises & Technique

Lunge

Meaning in sports & fitness, with examples

/lʌndʒ/nounCore term

In sports & fitness, lunge means: An exercise in which you take a long step forward or backward and bend both knees to lower your body, then push back up to standing.

In Turkish: lunge, öne hamle

How it is used

A standard leg exercise in gyms, classes and team warm-ups. Variations include walking lunges, reverse lunges and side lunges, done with body weight or dumbbells. As a verb, lunge also means to move forward suddenly, for example a goalkeeper lunging for the ball.

Example sentences

  1. Do twelve walking lunges on each leg with the dumbbells.

  2. The keeper lunged to his left and saved the penalty.

Common collocations

  • walking lunges
  • reverse lunge
  • side lunge
  • lunge position
  • squatAn exercise in which you bend your knees and hips to lower your body as if sitting down, then stand up again; done with body weight or a load.
  • quadricepsThe large group of four muscles at the front of the thigh that straighten the knee; often shortened to quads.
  • glutesShort for gluteal muscles: the muscles of the buttocks, mainly the gluteus maximus, medius and minimus, which move and stabilise the hips.
  • dumbbellA short bar with a weight at each end, held in one hand; used singly or in pairs for exercises such as curls, presses and rows.

More terms: Exercises & Technique

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