Power Stairs

🎯 Hamstrings🏋️ OtherIntermediateCompoundAdductors (2°)Calves (2°)Glutes (2°)Lower back (2°)Quadriceps (2°)Shoulders (2°)Traps (2°)

How to do the power stairs

  1. In the power stairs, implements are moved up a staircase. For training purposes, these can be performed with a tire or box.
  2. Begin by taking the implement with both hands. Set your feet wide, with your head and chest up. Drive through the ground with your heels, extending your knees and hips to raise the weight from the ground.
  3. As you lean back, attempt to swing the weight onto the stairs, which are usually around 16-18" high. You can use your legs to help push the weight onto the stair.
  4. Repeat for 3-5 repetitions, and continue with a heavier weight, moving as fast as possible.

Muscles worked

The prime movers are the hamstrings, which extend the hip and bend the knee, frequently at both joints in the same repetition.

Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the adductors steady the thigh against the pull away from the midline; the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension.

The lower back, quadriceps, shoulders and traps take a share of the work as well.

Every exercise for:HamstringsAdductorsCalvesGlutesLower back

How this movement works

The load travels toward you and several joints bend to bring it there. The arms finish work the back starts, so grip and elbow flexors sit in the path of every repetition: when people stall on a compound pull, it is more often the hands giving out than the primary muscle running out of force.

It is filed under strongman, where the load is deliberately awkward rather than balanced. Most of the difficulty goes on holding on and staying braced.

What you need

These train the hamstrings too, using equipment this one does not:

Difficulty

Listed at intermediate level. It assumes you already own the underlying pattern and can hold position under load — if the position breaks before the target muscle tires, drop back to a beginner variation until it does not.

Of the 86 hamstrings exercises in this database, 35 are listed at intermediate level.

Related exercises

Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →

ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.