Step-Up, activando tu glúteo mayor

Step-up, activating your gluteus maximus

Hip extension is a fundamental movement in daily life and sports activities, including the step-up, which should not be overlooked.

An exercise we should not miss when working out at home is the step-up, but let’s analyze why we should do it.

Previous research has suggested an increasingly important role for the hip extensor muscles in heavier lower-body exercises (for example, squats, lunges, and deadlifts) and explosive athletic actions (for example, jumping, running, and changing direction).

  • The main muscles responsible for this movement are the gluteus maximus, the long head of the biceps femoris, the semimembranosus, the semitendinosus, and the ischiocondylar portion of the adductor magnus.

Despite this, the gluteus maximus has been identified as the primary muscle responsible for hip extension.

The gluteus maximus is specifically involved in loaded exercises that generally do not sufficiently activate the hamstrings during tasks involving simultaneous hip and knee extension, such as squats and leg presses.

A significant number of studies compare gluteus maximus activation levels among various strength and bodyweight exercises.

  • The more hours you spend sitting each day, the harder it will be to develop your glutes, even if you are doing strength training.

For this reason, we should pay attention to research on the step-up compared with other exercises, recently published by Brazilian scientist Walter Krause Neto in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine.

What does science say about the step-up?

In the scientific literature on the step-up, 12 previous studies on leg training were reviewed.

  • In these studies, exercises such as squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, and lunges were compared.

Using EMG technology, the researchers determined the extent to which 24 exercises activated the gluteus maximus, the most important muscle.

The results were ranked according to the degree to which they stimulated the gluteus maximus. Hip thrusts performed well, but the step-up performed better.

And does the methodology work?

Several factors, including relative external load, movement speed, fatigue level, the mechanical complexity of the exercise (open or closed kinetic chain, loaded or unloaded), and the need for joint stabilization, can directly influence gluteus maximus activation.

The purpose of this systematic review was to describe activation levels in this muscle group during dynamic exercises.

  • These exercises incorporate hip extension and the use of an external load.

To help trainers select exercises for the gluteus maximus, the included exercises, including the step-up, were classified as:

  • Low activation level (0 to 20% of MVIC),
  • Moderate activation level (21 to 40% of MVIC),
  • High activation level (41 to 60% of MVIC), and
  • Very high activation level (more than 60% of MVIC), according to the recommendations of the Macadam and Feser (2019) study.

What were the results?

Overall, the step-up and its variations show the highest levels of gluteus maximus activation (> 100% of MVIC), and this increases when weight is used as resistance.

However, there are several loaded exercises and their variations, such as deadlifts, hip thrusts, lunges, and squats.

  • These exercises showed a very high level of GMax activation (> 60% of 1RM).

Gluteus maximus activity can vary significantly depending on changes in technique during the exercise; however, the step-up outperformed all of them in every variation.

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