Step Ups and knees

jody75

When I was 12 I broke my right leg. The same injury now would have resulted in surgery but orthopedic surgery was just beginning to come to the masses then. My doc thought my leg would heal okay without it. I spent 6 weeks in a cast from mid thigh to toes and another 4 weeks in a cast that went from below my knee to toes. I've always had pain in that knee and that lovely grinding crunch. About 4 years ago, I noticed that my leg is actually not straight.

Despite spending my adult life yo-yoing between overweight and morbidly obese, I've stayed pretty active. Thanks to the step ups in this program I've learned that I've got a tremendous strength imbalance in my legs. I had to go to a taller step so I could resist the temptation to put my trailing leg on the floor. I decided to do these without any weight for now and work on ROM. I do ok on my left leg. I can hardly bend my right. I'm not sure if its mental because I'm afraid my knee will fail or if its really a strength imbalance. Last night I was standing on my step having a mental battle with my leg trying to get it to bend.

I'm going to keep working on it but I wondered if anyone else had these kinds of problems?

Beeps2011

I don't have knee problems.

I think you are doing the right thing by going to a taller step - making sure your form is GREAT is going to be KEY (injured or uninjured). It's immaterial (right now) that you are choosing body-weight only - good for you!! Keep working on your form.

I might suggest 1 or 2 sessions with a physical therapist - walking through the exercise with you, to make sure your knee is doing what it is supposed to be doing!

jody75

Thanks, Beeps. I watched some videos yesterday and I was doing them slightly wrong too. I was mentally putting more emphasis on not touching with my trailing leg than on my full ROM. Sometimes I forget that I have 120 pounds to lose and I won't always be able to do exercises like the pictures in the book.

lhergenr

I haven't had a major leg injury but there's a huge strength imbalance between my legs as well. When I do step ups or any other exercise that isolates one leg, it's always way easier with my left leg and somewhat of a struggle with my right. Make sure you do your first set with your weaker leg!

courtniemarie

I haven't had a major leg injury either but I realized right off the bat that I was better at step ups with my left foot (I'm left-handed so I didn't think anything of it).

Once I got into a real gym for these workouts I started seeing myself in the mirrors and holy moly. My right knee completely turns inward, instead of over my toes. Not to mention my balance on these isn't where it probably should be. It doesn't hurt but it's very hard and I struggle to complete the set for my right leg. Has anyone else had this issue? Should I be finishing Stage 1 with a step up substitute?

cphaneuf16

I don't have knee issues, but I did have problems with correct form for the step-ups. My knees were turning inward and I was leaning too far forward to get my body up to the step. I met with a personal trainer/coach and he suggested I hold a weight plate straight out in front of me as a counterbalance, instead of dumbbells. I'm starting with a step that is just at the bottom of my knee, until I can do it more easily. I use a 5lb weight plate until I can do this on an 18" step.

Here's a video with the counterbalance step-up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o3zdhRgHN4

courtniemarie

Thank you for the suggestion! I'm going to try the weight plate next time Step Ups are on the schedule. Hopefully, I just upped the dumbbell weight too quickly before I really got the form down.