How to do the Step-Up properly — Pembrokeshire Health Hub

The step-up is a great choice for a single leg accessory exercise. But many people do it wrong and are shortchanging the potential benefits of the exercise. There are a couple of considerations we need to make when prescribing step-ups, these are; Step-up height, placement of the weight, and correct technique. We’ll begin with correct technique.

How to perform the step up

Now a step-up is a great strength builder for the quads, hamstrings, and glutes of the leg that is stepping up. And that is an important point – the leg stepping up should be doing almost all the work. A common mistake shown in the first video and one that many people make is that they bounce off the back leg and only the last 50%-25% of the movement comes from the top leg. The rear leg should not bounce up during the movement. This can be a tough problem to rectify, as many people don’t even realise they are doing it! One cue I like to use is ‘peel your back foot off the floor bit by bit’. The second video shows a good step up with controlled lowering and emphasis on the front foot.

The lowering phase of the step-up is another thing I see faults being made on. We want to lower under control and not be falling to the floor, especially when you consider how unprepared peoples ankles and knees are to absorb that load. When doing a step-up I don’t want to hear your foot hitting the floor, be as quiet as a church mouse. Imagine the floor is an egg and you don’t want to break its shell by uncontrollably falling to the floor. If you can’t lower it under control then you shouldn’t be lifting it, drop the weight and do it properly, your joints will thank you, and you’ll get more from the exercise.

Step Up height

Now with the step-up height, we want to ensure that we aren’t stepping up too high – generally anything over 90 degrees of hip flexion is too high. This is going to encourage the use of that lower leg to ‘bounce’ us up and it may also increase flexion of the lower back if we don’t have adequate hip flexibility. I’ve found that those with good balance and hip flexibility perform best on a step that’s at 90 degrees hip flexion or just below.

Balance can often be a limiting factor when performing the step-up. The higher the step, the harder it is to balance and control the movement due to the increased range of motion – especially on the downward phase. If you struggle with the balance portion of the movement – reduce the height of the step. If even after reducing the height of the step you still struggle with balance, then perform the step up with a hand on a fixed support. Make sure you’re using this hand just for balance – not to help pull you up and control you down.

Weight Placement

Now there are many options for placement of weight during a step-up, some easier than others, and some more suited for specific outcomes. Now before we begin let me just preface this by saying if you can’t perform a perfect bodyweight step-up then you have no place adding external load just yet. Don’t load bad form.

Loading the exercise on the same side increases stability demands

Now our options when loading a step-up include a weighted vest, dumbbells, kettlebells and barbells. The first choice I would go to for adding resistance is a weighted vest. A vest will not change the movement much, we still have use of our arms for balance and it is a great way to help us build confidence in our ability to step up with load.

Next progression will be a single kettlebell or dumbbell. Placing the load in the opposite hand to the leg that is working is the easiest option as it mimics our regular gait cycle. If your goal is to increase your single-leg stability, then loading the exercise on the same side is your best option. This increases the stability aspects of the exercise and increases the activation and role of the gluteal muscles.

If you are using the step-up for increasing strength, then loading with a barbell gives you access to higher loads compared to that which you’d comfortably be able to handle with dumbbells and kettlebells. The exercise done with a barbell does change it slightly, both arms are now being used to stabilize the bar and therefore cannot be used for balance anymore, this makes the exercise much more difficult. You do need to be careful when doing the exercise with a barbell as your ability to fail the exercise safely becomes much more difficult.

So give the step-up a go in your next leg session, it can be used as the main movement or as an accessory movement. There are many variations of the step up to mix up your routine and keep things interesting. Keep your eyes peeled for a follow-up article where I go through some of my favorite step-up variations.