How to do the Curtsy Lunge
Step by step
- Stand tall with feet hip-width apart.
- Step one foot back and across behind the other, like a curtsy.
- Bend both knees to lower your back knee toward the floor.
- Keep your front knee tracking over your foot and your hips facing forward.
- Push through the front foot to return to standing, then switch sides.
The thing people get wrong
Keep the front knee tracking over the foot - the crossed-back stance tempts it to cave inward, so guard against it.
Coaching cue
Step back and across far enough that your front foot can stay flat on the floor.
Stay safe
Skip this one if you feel twisting pain in the front knee; the crossed stance loads it at an angle.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Step straight back into a regular reverse lunge until the crossed version feels stable.
- Harder: Pause for two seconds at the bottom of each rep.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Glutes, Quads
- Secondary: Hips
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.