I did 30 lateral lunges every day for a week — here’s what happened

If you’ve followed a fitness regime or spent any time in a gym, you’ve probably performed lunges, or at least watched someone else doing them, which is much easier. I do them occasionally, but only the regular forward or backward kind; I had never attempted lateral lunges until this challenge. It became clear on day one that there was a reason for this. 

This challenging body-weight exercise is just what it sounds like: a lunge to one side or the other (it’s also called the side lunge). Like the basic lunge, it works multiple muscles at once — the glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves — but the sideways movement throws instability into the mix and activates the muscles differently, so it helps improve balance. Even if you regularly do forward or backward lunges, you’re going to feel this one in the first few days, especially in your inner thigh muscles (your adductors). It requires no equipment, so you can do it at home, though you’ll need more room than you do for a standard lunge (this may be one reason you don’t see it being performed very often in a gym).