Cardio Power Moves: Plyo Step Ups

Last Update: September 18, 2008

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Plyo step up exercises are perfect for building the lower body and increasing cardio. Learn how to perform plyo step up exercises properly from a certified trainer in this workout video.

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  • Use various heights
  • Corner to corner moves
  • Step & tap
  • Hands on waist
  • Add knee lifts

About this Author

Keith Irace has been a certified trainer for 16 years. He is currently the regional group fitness manager for Equinox Fitness Clubs in southern California and a trainer for iTRAIN.com is your own "Hollywood personal trainer right in your pocket." Each audio and video workout consists of an elite Hollywood Trainer or World Champion Athlete mixed with original music to satisfy your workout needs. iTRAIN provides more than 275 workouts in its library ranging from treadmill to elliptical, cycling, strength training, and many more.

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Video Transcript

Hi. I'm Keith Irace and welcome to Cardio Power Moves. Today's move is plyo-step up. Now I'm going to be working on a step here with two risers but you can work with a step with one riser, a step by itself. You can even do the same move on the floor at home and get the most of the same benefits. So we're going to start today with just a simple piece of step choreography which is a corner to corner move. You'll be tapping up with one leg, floor, floor, tap up with the other side [DEMONSTRATION]. Tap step, so we tap on the outside leg, step, floor, floor, step, floor, floor, that's it, tap. Now, we're going to put our hands on our waist. I want you to make sure at the outside of the move that you stand all the way up on the steps, so we open up our hip joint. And now, we start to add a knee lift. Right, lift, good. Now stand as tall as you can at the top of that step all the way up. Here are some options. We're going to get a little more intense with it. Your options, add your arms. We push overhead. And push on that outside, knee lift and a push overhead, push as if you were lifting the ceiling. Really lift it up. Now, next option, a little more intense, we add a little power to it. So now, we get a little propulsion. We pop off the step. We get a little air under our foot. That's it, up pop, good, up pop. Let's give in 10 more. Ten, really lifted up there. You should feel your heart rate elevating. Lift, good, seven, here we go, six, and five, here's four, and three, and two, and one. Just walk it out. Now you want to make sure, especially when you do propulsion and power moves that you give yourself a chance to recover. That's means you're going to just keep moving until you feel like you can use your breath down and speak easily before you come to a halt. Thank you for joining us today. I'm Keith Irace. I'll see you next time.

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