Adding new exercises to your repertoire doesn't just help to make your exercise routine interesting. It also keeps your body guessing. New challenges force your muscles and nerves to adapt in new ways, so that you're less likely to hit a dreaded plateau in your goals for weight loss or muscular strength and endurance. If you only have time to do a few leg exercises, crossover step-ups have the added advantage of intensely working several leg muscles at once.
Description
The crossover step-up is a variation on the simple step-up. But instead of placing one foot on a platform in front of you and then stepping repeatedly up and down on that foot--as if you were stepping on and off of a very high stair step--you mount the platform from the side.
Stand to one side of a solid platform or bench. Plant your outside foot on the bench, knee bent, knees and toes pointing straight forward. Extend that leg, bringing your body up and over the step until you're balanced over the planted foot. Return to the start position and repeat. Complete a full set on the same leg before switching to the other side.
Muscles Worked
Crossover step-ups work your glutes, which are responsible for both extending and abducting your leg at the hip. Your hamstrings, adductors and quads also activate to extend your hip and knee, and to stabilize your leg at the knee throughout the motion.
Progression
You probably don't have several hours to do a few thousand repetitions of crossover step-ups. Even if you do, you'd quickly hit a point of diminishing returns and might even cause an overuse injury. Instead, follow the MayoClinic.com recommendation for weight lifting: Do a single set of 12 repetitions.
Once completing the final repetition isn't a challenge, make the exercise more difficult. Either increase the height of the platform you're stepping onto--although it should never be so high that your knee or hip bends more than 90 degrees--or carry a dumbbell in each hand.
Equipment
The platform you use as a base for your step-ups should be solid and stable. Remember that you're going to be focusing most of your body weight on the platform's extreme edge; if it tips, you could fall off and get hurt, But you don't have to have a gym-quality plyo-box available to do this exercise. You can do it standing sideways on the very bottom step of a flight of stairs, or on a stable, adjustable aerobics step bench.
Considerations
Many of the same warnings that apply to other weight training exercises in general, and leg exercises in particular, apply to crossover step-ups. Aim for a steady cadence of at least two seconds on the upward motion, and two to four seconds on the downward motion. Always keep your body--the primary "weight" or resistance, in this case--under control.
Pay special attention to how your knees and toes are oriented. They should point the same way--straight ahead--and you shouldn't have to twist any part of your body to make the step up and down. Think of leaning over the step, not twisting over it, to avoid creating shearing forces in your knee. If your knee tilts or folds inward, your adductors are too fatigued to maintain proper form; stop.
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