Single Arm Overhead Lunge (Kettlebell)
The Single Arm Overhead Lunge is an advanced compound exercise that combines a lower-body lunge with an isometric overhead hold. This movement builds unilateral leg strength while significantly challenging core stability, shoulder mobility, and balance.
This exercise places high demands on your central nervous system due to the balance and stability required. The AI analyzes your HRV and sleep data to gauge your readiness; on days with low recovery scores, it may suggest regressing to a racked lunge to reduce injury risk. Additionally, by tracking RPE and form feedback over time, the app learns your stability threshold, ensuring you only increase weight when your core and shoulder stabilizers are strong enough to handle the load without compromising spinal alignment.
Form Cues
- Lock your elbow completely with your bicep close to your ear
- Brace your core tightly to keep your ribs down
- Step forward and lower your hips until both knees form 90-degree angles
- Drive through the front heel to return to the starting position
- Keep your torso upright and resist leaning sideways
- Don't allow your elbow to bend or the weight to drift sideways
- Don't arch your lower back to keep the weight up
- Don't let your front knee collapse inward
- Don't slam your back knee into the floor
- Don't look down; keep your gaze forward
Common Mistakes
- Overarching the lumbar spine
- Bent elbow during the hold
- Narrow stance causing imbalance
- Front knee caving inward
- Rushing the movement tempo
Muscles Worked
This exercise primarily targets the quadriceps and glutes to execute the lunge pattern, effectively addressing strength asymmetries between legs. Secondarily, the overhead position forces the anterior deltoids, triceps, and entire core musculature to engage intensely to resist rotation and extension, making it a true total-body stability challenge.
Primary
Secondary
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