step ups

3 Reasons Step-Ups Are a Great Leg and Butt Exercise
Strength Training

3 Reasons to Love Step-Ups

If you're fickle with your gym routine, here's one move you should consider adding to most of your workouts: step-ups.
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If you're fickle with your gym routine, here's one move you should consider adding to most of your workouts: step-ups. The simple act of hauling your body up one step for 20 reps is great for your legs and your lungs. Here are my top three reasons to love this move.

  1. Cardio: There's a reason step aerobics were so popular in the '90s; stepping up and onto something gets your heart rate climbing. Step-ups will help you burn more calories during strength training sessions, so add step-ups between sets of ab and arm work to keep your heart rate high.
  2. Booty lift: Step-ups work your backside. In fact, celeb trainer Valerie Waters believes high step-ups are the perfect cure for a "droopy butt." You can grab a chair and do a set of high step-ups at home. I think they will lift your mood as they are lifting your derriere.
  3. Hill climbing: If you run or bike, you know hills can be tough, but strength training helps. Step-ups mimic the action of running and biking preparing your muscles to climb. Consider step-ups part of your cross training.

Not convinced? Here are three variations of step-ups to try and see for yourself.

Three Ways to Step It Up
How To

Three Ways to Step It Up

If you want to tone your backside and get your heart rate up while doing it, try step ups.
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If you want to tone your backside and get your heart rate up while doing it, try step ups. The name pretty much says it all; this move works your legs and glutes while making your heart pump like you're walking up a flight of stairs as you step onto a bench at least a foot off the ground. Here are three levels of this basic yet effective exercise for you to work your way through.

  • Beginner: Find a step or a bench that when you place your foot squarely on it your knee is at a 90 degree angle or larger. The weight benches at my gym are the perfect height for me, but a dining room chair can work in a pinch too. Step up 20 times leading with the right foot, then the left, bringing both feet completely onto the bench. To return to the starting position, lead with the right foot to step down to the floor, then the left, until ending with both feet on the ground. Switch legs and start stepping with the left foot for 20 steps.

If you're ready for a more challenging step up, read more

Extreme Sport: Stair Racing
Fitness

Extreme Sport: Stair Racing

If you love the StairMaster, you're going to love stair racing (also called stair or skyscraper run-ups).
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If you love the StairMaster, you're going to love stair racing (also called stair or skyscraper run-ups). If you enter a race, you start at the ground level of a gigantic building, and you run up the stairs with hundreds of other people, often ascending thousands of steps in a few minutes. Just recently in the Taipei 101 race, a German athlete sprinted up 91 floors in 10 minutes and 53 seconds! Talk about major cardio.

You can find stair-climbing races in all the world's skyscrapers including the Empire State Building in New York City, the Sheraton Wall Center Hotel in Vancouver, Canada, and the Menara Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Many of these stair climbs are for charities, so not only are people getting into the physical challenge of stair racing, but they feel good knowing they're raising money for good causes.

Even if you're not into racing, you can still benefit from climbing stairs. There's no need to buy an expensive StairMaster or join a gym. You can climb the stairs in tall buildings near you, or if you don't have access to multiple flights of stairs, you can go up and down one flight of stairs. You'll tone your quads, buns, and calves, and your heart and lungs will get an amazing workout as well. Not only that, it's totally free.

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Home Work: Step Up and Kick
How To

Home Work: Step Up and Kick

Since it's chilly outside, instead of turning up the heat or making a cup of hot chocolate, give these a try.
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Since it's chilly outside, instead of turning up the heat or making a cup of hot chocolate, give these a try. All you need is a chair and plenty of room so you can stand comfortably on the seat. Be sure to use a chair that has no wheels, and place it on a carpet or a mat to prevent it from slipping.

  • Stand next to a chair. Place your right foot in the center of the chair seat.
  • Then step up and raise your left knee up in front of your chest. Hold like this for a count of three, trying to keep your spine and right leg straight. Keep breathing and engage your abs to support your back. Then slowly step down.
  • Repeat this for a total of 20 times.

Want to see how to make this move a little more challenging? Then read more

Step Ups are a Good Alternative to Lunges
You Asked

You Asked: Alternatives For Lunges?

"Lunges are for losers.
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"Lunges are for losers. And I mean that in the most positive way. Really. You lunge you lose weight, cellulite, something. But here is my question: I can't lunge to save my life. Does anyone know any alternatives to lunges?"
- ArtChiQe

Lunges are great, but they are not for everyone, especially those of us with bad knees. You can try to replace lunges with squats, leg presses, or even reverse lunges. An alternative that I especially love are "Step Ups," because they work a lot of the same muscles that lunges would work. Here's how you do a Step Up:

  • Use a bench at the gym or find something about the height of a bench at home. You can also stack up a step bench — the adjustable steps used in step class.
  • With one leg, step up onto the bench. Then step back down.
  • Do three sets of 15 reps (on each leg).

Fit's Tip: If starting with the height of a bench is too difficult for you, find something lower and work your way up.

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