Upper Body Workout (Week 2)
And everyone's doing box step ups wrong
Happy Friday, Frens!
I saw some clips of the Nathan’s hot dog eating contest yesterday and started getting the gags as they raced to jam their gullets. How do you even train for that?
Speaking of training, I have some demo vids for you for this cycle’s workout.
⭐️And a bonus…
How to do box step ups.
This is a pet peeve. Especially when you see “trainers” having their clients do box step ups in a way that’s only training them to destroy their knees and hips while leaving the majority of potential gains out of the movement.
THIS IS THE WRONG (AND MOST COMMON) WAY YOU SEE BOX STEP UPS:
I’m typing in all caps because it’s already making me mad.
My Dear Reader asks, “What’s wrong with it?” (that’s my Lady Whistledown voice)
Consider this, frendos:
Almost all of the initiating force of the movement is being generated by the rear leg and not the one stepping up… aka the leg we’re trying to train. There’s almost no effort from the “working” leg until 50% of the movement is over because all the power was generated by the bottom leg giving a leg up on the ground. <cymbal crash>
When she steps down on the eccentric portion of the movement, there’s — again — no resistance whatsoever on the ‘working’ leg. Gravity takes over and she just comes down with full force which is horrible for your joints and a waste of what the exercise is meant to do.
This is the equivalent of lifting a heavy weight and then allowing it slam to the ground vs controlling the lowering portion for greater eccentric muscle stimulation.
People make this worse by adding dumbbells. If they were actually doing this correctly, minimal to no weight would be needed as the front leg would have plenty of challenging work on its own with controlled body weight.
HOW TO DO A PROPER BOX STEP UP
Please pay attention to my rear foot position throughout the movement in this video.
Begin the movement with your back foot’s toes curled up against the box and your front working leg on top of the box. Legs shoulder width apart.
With the toes curled against the box, the rear leg can no longer produce a lot of force and take over the work meant for your front leg.
Push through the whole surface of your front foot to step up fully onto the box while dragging your rear leg’s toes along the box on the way up.
Don’t allow your rear foot to lose contact with the box. Much, much harder than it looks.
Bring your hips through with a butt cheek squeeze at the top.
On the way down (eccentric portion), do not let gravity take over and slam the rear leg back down. You’ve given up a huge portion of gains by bailing on the movement this way. Instead, lower as controlled as possible by having the rear toe drag back down the box and try to land softly while readjusting your toe curl for the next rep.
Again, this is much harder than it looks and most people only need their body weight or a light weight vest to make great glute and quads gains.
This is an exercise alternative for the machine glute kickbacks in this cycle’s workout.