Test your leg strength with this simple but powerful exercise.
Are you doing high steps in your exercise routine? This is a very functional unilateral exercise that increases balanceprotects your interests and builds lower body strength. It focuses on your hamstrings, quads, calves and hamstrings. Steps are so named because you step onto a chair or platform and then return to the floor.
Unilateral means that you use one leg at a time, forcing each to carry your entire body weight. This helps correct potential strength imbalances while engaging the muscles that make up your core. The steps are full of goodness. The number may surprise you.
Why Step-Ups Are a Solid Test of Lower Body Strength
Step-ups are a powerful test of strength and body function because they require one leg to do the whole thing.
We spoke to them to find out where you stand Gerard Washakwith Strong Republic Personal Training, which has over 20 years of experience owning personal training studios throughout the Coachella Valley. Washack designed Strong Republic around a belief system: adults over 40 deserve an exercise program designed specifically for them and their needs.
“They take into account your balance and your core strength to stay upright during the movement,” explains Washack. “Steps really show how strong your legs are and how good your balance is.”
How to do them
- Start standing tall facing a sturdy exercise bench or plyometric box that is knee high. Hold an optional dumbbell in each hand.
- Plant your left foot firmly on the ground, keeping your core engaged and your chest up.
- Push through your left heel to lift your body until your left leg is straight and you are standing on the ground.
- Use control to lower back to starting position.
- Repeat on the other side.
What is actually being evaluated?
Four things happen at the same time: strength, balance, endurance and coordination.
“Strength, because the lead leg moves your full body weight up against gravity; balance; endurance, because the muscles tire quickly, because the legs are the largest muscles in the body and need the most oxygen; and finally, coordination, because driving without swinging or pushing the lower leg takes real motor control.”
Which muscles do the work?
Your quads start the workout, while your glutes widen your legs as you reach your peak. Your calves and hamstrings stabilize your ankles and knees, and your core is responsible for keeping your body from leaning forward. Finally, small hip stabilizers are involved to keep the standing leg from caving inward.
Washack says the move is “really the perfect move.”
How Step-Ups Prepare You for Real Movement
An important part of your fitness routine as you age should be choosing exercises that prepare you for real-life movement. Steps do just that.
“Every stair you climb is a step up, (plus) every time you get up from a low chair without using your hands, get up off the floor, walk a path, go to the curb with groceries, or even climb into a truck,” Vashak explains.
What is a strong indicator after the age of 60?
According to Washack, if you are over 60 and in good shape, you should do five to eight steps on each side– kneeling on the bench – without stopping. “elite” status means to perform approx 20 steps up on one side with proper form and control. Now you should have a number.
Alexa Mellardo
Alexa is a freelance writer, editor and content strategist in Greenwich, CT. She has over 11 years of experience in health, fitness, nutrition, travel, lifestyle and home. Read more about Alexa
