Barbell Step Ups

How to perform

1. 01Stand up straight while holding a barbell placed on the back of your shoulders (slightly below the neck) and stand upright behind an elevated platform (such as the one used for spotting behind a flat bench). This is your starting position.
2. 02Place the right foot on the elevated platform. Step on the platform by extending the hip and the knee of your right leg. Use the heel mainly to lift the rest of your body up and place the foot of the left leg on the platform as well. Breathe out as you execute the force required to come up.
3. 03Step down with the left leg by flexing the hip and knee of the right leg as you inhale. Return to the original standing position by placing the right foot of to next to the left foot on the initial position.
4. 04Repeat with the right leg for the recommended amount of repetitions and then perform with the left leg.

Form cues

• —Brace your core before the first rep and keep it braced.
• —Drive through the full range — do not cut the lockout short.
• —Set the bar path over mid-foot and keep it there.
• —Control the lowering phase — that is where most of the growth stimulus lives.

Common mistakes

• —Using momentum instead of the target muscle.
• —Cutting the range of motion short to add load.
• —Adding weight before the movement pattern is clean.