Legs · Bodyweight
Side Lunge Windmill
How to do the side lunge windmill, the muscles it works, and the mistakes to avoid. Pulled straight from the Kovo app's exercise library.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Logged as
- Reps
- Movement
- Lunge
- Mechanic
- Compound
How to do it
Stand tall with feet wide. Shift your weight into one bent leg as you lower into a side lunge, then reach the opposite hand down toward your front foot while the other arm sweeps overhead. Rotate your torso open, then return to standing and alternate sides.
- 1Stretch through the inner thigh of the straight leg as you sink into the
- 2lunge
- 3Open through the chest and rotate from the mid-back as the top arm reaches up
- 4Keep the working glute loaded and the knee tracking over the foot
Common mistakes
- Letting the bent knee cave inward instead of tracking over the foot
- Rounding the back to reach the floor instead of hinging and rotating
- Rushing the rotation and losing balance through the lunge
Muscles worked
The side lunge windmill mainly works the adductors, obliques, and glutes, with the quads, hamstrings, lower back, upper abs, and lower abs assisting.
- AdductorsPrimary
- ObliquesPrimary
- GlutesPrimary
- QuadsSupport
- HamstringsSupport
- Lower BackSupport
- Upper AbsSupport
- Lower AbsSupport
- Mid TrapsMinor
- CalvesMinor
- Side DeltsMinor
- Rear DeltsMinor
- External RotatorsMinor
- Hip FlexorsMinor
Kovo programs the side lunge windmill for you and tracks it every session.
We build your whole program, drop the right lifts into each workout, and adjust your weights as you get stronger. Free on iOS and Android.
More hips & adductors exercises
- How to do the butterfly stretch
- How to do the external rotation
- How to do the cable hip adduction
- How to do the internal rotation
- How to do the cobra pose
- How to do the core scrunch
Last reviewed June 2026.