Lunge with your arms locked overhead for a brutal core test.
Brace your core hard and keep the weights directly overhead, don't let them drift forward.
Your quads do the main work here, lowering you into each lunge and driving you back to standing, while your shoulders work overtime holding two dumbbells locked out overhead for the entire set. Because each hand carries its own weight, the dumbbells expose any side-to-side wobble a single bar would hide. It is a smart pick when you want leg training and overhead stability rolled into one demanding move.
Dumbbells let each shoulder stabilise independently and are much easier to bail safely, while a bar moves as one unit. Start with dumbbells, they are more forgiving to set up and to dump.
Much lighter than a normal lunge. The overhead hold is the limiting factor, so pick a weight you can keep locked out with straight arms for every rep of the set.
The standard version alternates legs each rep, which gives each side a short breather. Nothing stops you working one side at a time, but alternating usually lets you hold a solid overhead position for longer.
