The 7-Day Step-Up Challenge That Restores Leg Power After 60

As you age, leg power and raw lower body strength go downhill. Daily activities that were once effortless, like climbing stairs, catching yourself when you trip, and getting up out of a low chair may now be more challenging than you’d care to admit. Research shows that maximal muscle power declines by roughly 2.2 to 2.4 percent per year in adults over 60, nearly twice the rate at which strength itself declines.The good news? You can increase your leg power with one simple lower-body strengthening exercise: the step-up.

What makes the step-up so effective for lower body strength is that it mirrors real life movements like walking up stairs. Doing them repeatedly for a week with small, incremental improvements (a few more reps here, a touch more speed there) can add up to a significant increase in leg power.

To help you get started, we chatted with James Brady, CPT, a certified personal trainer at Read Entire Article