maratoolStep-up with Knee Raise
How to do the step-up with knee raise
- Stand facing a box or bench of an appropriate height with your feet together. This will be your starting position.
- Begin the movement by stepping up, putting your left foot on the top of the bench. Extend through the hip and knee of your front leg to stand up on the box. As you stand on the box with your left leg, flex your right knee and hip, bringing your knee as high as you can.
- Reverse this motion to step down off the box, and then repeat the sequence on the opposite leg.
Muscles worked
The prime mover is the gluteus maximus, which is the strongest hip extensor you have and drives the pelvis forward at the top of the movement.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the hamstrings assist hip extension and slow the knee down; the quadriceps straighten the knee and take load on the descent.
Every exercise for:GlutesHamstringsQuadriceps
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the glutes too, using equipment this one does not:
- Barbell Glute Bridgebarbell
- Downward Facing Balanceexercise ball
- Hip Extension with Bandsband
- One Legged Cable Kickbackcable
- Piriformis-SMRfoam roll
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 24 glutes exercises in this database, 13 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.