12 April, 2008

Ask the Coach: Exercise of the Week

Barbell Step Up

When someone is starting a new training program the initial period should be spent preparing the body for the training in the months ahead. One important aspect to be taken care of is to get the legs and shoulders structurally balanced. This means you need to get one leg as strong as the other and one arm as strong as they other so it prevents the other joint from over-compensation. When this happens you will lift more weight and you will also reduce the risks of future injuries. One such exercise that can address the lower body is the Barbell Step Up.

Here are some tips to perform this exercise.

Set the height of the step and place a bar on the meatiest piece of your shoulder. The stronger you are the more you can raise the height.

The foot on the step is the working leg. Most people cheat when doing step-ups by leaning forward too much and pushing off on the bottom leg.

When you push off the floor leg, the leg on top of the block or bench isn't doing much work.

To prevent you from cheating, curl up the toes of the foot that’s on the floor and keep them curled during the movement.

This prevents cheating from the other leg. Lock out the knee and lower yourself under control.

The knee should stay lined up with the mid-toes throughout and it shouldn’t buckle. If it does the weight may be too heavy or the height of the step may be too big.

Alternate Sides. Match the weaker legs repetitions with the stronger leg.

Sets: 2-4: No of times to Repeat Repetitions- Start with 2 sets and increase

Repetitions: 10-20 Each Leg- The length of a repetition is not long so you can do more repetitions.

Tempo: 1010 Lower down in 1 seconds push back to starting position in 1 sec

Rest: 60 seconds- Repeat Exercise or alternate with hamstring work.