Training legs every day isn't for everyone – but coach Cory Gregory reckons routinely performing walking lunges offers enough benefits to make you reconsider.
Gregory isn't a fan of running or traditional cardio, so instead he uses extended bouts of walking lunges to work on his conditioning. He first started the habit a decade ago and is currently more than 120 consecutive days into his latest streak, regularly covering between 400 and 800 metres.
'Walking lunges as your conditioning each day are a cheat code,' Gregory says. 'It helps with strengthening your lower body, helps with your balance, helps with your endurance, lactic acid threshold, overall body awareness, and you can do it anywhere.'
And because spending that much time lunging could become fairly monotonous, Gregory has found a way to kill two birds with one stone. He calls it 'lunge and learn': listening to an audiobook or podcast while completing his reps.
'I found a magic between the conditioning and the learning especially after lifting weights that has made me a way better smarter wiser person because I study life everyday in some capacity,' he adds.
How to Try the Walking Lunge Challenge
Thankfully, Gregory doesn't suggest jumping straight into 800 metres of lunges.
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Instead, he recommends starting with just one minute on your first day, then gradually adding an extra minute each day. The first few sessions will be tough, but Gregory says your body should begin adapting to the workload, allowing you to progressively increase the duration.
He claims it takes around 12 days to become accustomed to the effort, describing the habit as 'super rewarding' and saying it 'helps you build an absolute machine of a body'.
His rules are simple: don't take an additional step between lunges and make sure your back knee touches the ground on every rep. If you've ever tackled lunges in Hyrox, the movement standard will feel familiar.
You certainly don't need to lunge every day to benefit from the exercise, but gradually building your volume could offer a very different conditioning challenge from another session on the treadmill.
How to Do Walking Lunges
- Stand tall with your feet around hip-width apart, chest up and core braced.
- Take a long step forwards and plant your foot firmly on the ground. Bend both knees and lower under control until your back knee touches the floor and your front thigh is roughly parallel to the ground. Keep your front heel planted throughout.
- Drive through your front foot to stand, bringing your back leg forwards and moving directly into your next lunge.
- Alternate legs with each rep, keeping your hips square, feet facing forwards and range of motion consistent throughout.
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Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.
During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.
Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…
You can follow Ryan on Instagram @ryan.dabbs or on X @ryandabbs_
