Step-Up with Knee Raise

How to do it

1. Set a box or bench at roughly knee height. Higher demands more from the glutes and more balance.
2. Stand facing it holding a dumbbell in each hand, or with bodyweight to start.
3. Place one whole foot on the box, with the heel on the surface rather than hanging off the edge.
4. Drive through that heel to stand up onto the box, keeping the trailing leg passive — do not push off the floor with it.
5. At the top, drive the trailing knee up in front of you to hip height and pause briefly.
6. Lower the trailing leg, then step back down under control with the same leg, and repeat before swapping sides.

Common mistakes

• Pushing off the floor with the trailing leg. That is the most common way this exercise gets easier without anyone noticing. The working leg should do all of it.
• Setting the box too high, so the movement becomes a lunge and a scramble. Knee height is a good starting point.
• Hopping down. Stepping down under control is a large part of the work and it is the half most often given away.
• Letting the knee collapse inward on the drive up. Single-leg work is where the gluteus medius has to hold the pelvis and the thigh in position; a knee falling inward is that failing.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Glutes

Secondary

• Hamstrings
• Quads