
Second, your knee may cave in, or your hips may become unlevel in the effort to stepup higher. You don’t want to stress your lower back, only your quads, and glutes. First, if your torso leans too far forward, you disadvantage your anterior and posterior core. But it would be best if you watched for a few things. More range of motion means more muscle-building potential. When you’re feeling adventurous, increasing your box height so your knee is slightly higher than your hips is great too. If you’re new to this exercise or knee pain exists, stepping up on a smaller box is advisable. Choosing Your Box Height: A general rule on box height is that your knee forms a 90-degree angle when your foot is on the box.Yes, this is true, but there are certain things to watch out for to get the best out of the step up.

It looks like nothing to it because you put your foot on a box and step up. Step down slowly with the non-lead leg and reset and repeat.Once your knee is extended, either place the other foot on the box, balance on one leg, or drive your non-working leg into a high knee.Think of driving in glutes forward into hip extension as you stand up. Push through your lead foot to stand up.Place your entire lead foot on the box with your toes pointed forward.Either perform with body weight, hold dumbbells by your side, and stand around one foot away from the box.Depending on your hip mobility and strength, place your foot on a box so your knee is bent at a 90-degree angle or the hip crease is slightly below your knee.Ensure that your lead foot is glued to the step. Then you slowly step backward with the non-lead leg to the starting position. Do you take the stairs instead of the elevator? You push through your lead foot to lift yourself to a standing position on a bench. The stepup combines the lunge and stepping upward, like climbing the stairs. Ready to step up to the plate? Then let’s go.
#Step up r how to
Here we’ll dive into the stepup, how to do it, how muscles are trained, benefits, things to watch out for, and variations to spice up your stepup game. The stepup is quickly regressed or progressed for all fitness levels, and it fits into almost any exercise programming to build unilateral muscle and strength in your quads and glutes. You put your foot on an elevated surface and step up. It’s not like a barbell squat or deadlift where you must go through a mental checklist to rip the weight up from the floor or squat up from the hole.

It looks so simple because all you do is place your foot on a bench and step up. But a neglected exercise often gets overlooked in many lifters’ routines in the step up exercise. Split squats, lunges, squats, leg presses, and deadlift variations get most of the love in your leg routine because they’re responsible for most of your leg gains.
