Step Ups: The Unsung King of Leg Day

Step Ups don’t get as much of the hype they deserve. Many chase squats like they’re the only move that matter, sure they're awesome in their own right and are essential to great development but I'll let you on something: Step Ups are the sleeper hit that’ll torch your quads, hammies, and glutes while building some real-world power. This isn't just some fluffy accessory move or something made for lazy people—it’s a beast-builder, a grit-tester, and a straight-up vibe that gives you some needed cardio. Let’s break it down shall we...

Why Step Ups Kick Ass

First off, Step Ups are functional as fuck. You’re climbing stairs, hiking trails, or chasing gains—life is chalk full of single-leg power moments, and this move prepares the hell out of you for all of it. Unlike bilateral exercises, Step Ups hit each leg solo, so your weak side just can't sit in the back behind your stronger side. That imbalance you’ve been ignoring? Exposed like Madoff and fixed with a profound perspective.

They’re also joint-friendly. Got cranky knees from squatting high reps? Step Ups let you take the edge off without compromising your spine or tweaking your lower back. Plus, you can scale them—bodyweight whether you're new to the game or a seasoned vet like the legendary Bob Backlund, dumbbells or even a weight vest for the savages. You got this.

How to Crush It Like A Boss

Here’s the playbook:

Setup: Find a sturdy box or step stool. Height matters—Depending on your height, a good 12-15 inches high is solid. Too low, and you're just making it too easy. Too high, and you'll be overextending the hip joints which can cause injuries.

Stance: Plant one foot flat on the box or step stool, toes forward. Good posture—showing you mean business.

Drive: Push through your heel, not your toes. Feel that ass and quad fire up as you rise. No wobbling—control is king and focus is queen.

Finish: Stand tall at the top, lock it in, then step down in control. Nothing sloppy—negatives build muscle too.

Reps: Start with a few sets of 5-12 in the beginning, as you get better, increase to a certain number you're good with and find a goal number you want to target. For me, I like doing 500 total within the 25-50 rep range or if I'm really ambitious, I'll do my deck of cards which you've read about before from me.

Pro tip: If you want to add weight once bodyweight feels like it's not much of a challenge, grab dumbbells, slap a weigh vest on, or go bonkers with a sandbag. Just be sure to check your ego at the door—form is the first priority, always.

The Gains You’re Missing

Quads start becoming muscular. That ass popping like never before. Hamstrings tie them all together. But it goes beyond even that—Step Ups build stability and power that carry over to everything to other forms of training. Your squat numbers coming up short? Your sprint feeling off? Step Ups are the plug. They’re also a sneaky link for great cardio—crank the volume (up to 11 maybe) and listen to those lungs scream like a vampire from being stabbed or in the sun.

Mindset Check

This ain’t just a typical exercise; it’s a mental game. Every rep is you stepping over doubt, mental blocks, and that governor in your head telling you to skip leg day. You don’t just do Step Ups—you dominate them like Murderer's Row dominated Baseball in 1927.

The Wrap-Up

Next time you’re going after leg day, don’t sleep on Step Ups bro. They’re simple, savage, and stupidly effective. Grab a box or step stool and step into a world that will have conquering mountains.

Be amazingly awesome and keep Stepping Up Your Game!!!

A Few Benefits Of Rucking

Us humans have been doing this particular activity since the dawn of man as hunter/gatherers. Military men and women have done Rucking in order to keep them in shape so they can be as tough as they need to be when all hell breaks loose. A few benefits that everyday people can have when they practice this bad ass type of training....

1. Unbelievable Endurance & Work Capacity

Not the same as weight training as it aids in building endurance while fatigue is at the bare minimum. The overload for Work Capacity helps build a foundation that gradually progresses as you get stronger just like in the gym. Even the late Louie Simmons was a huge advocate for Work Capacity which included multiple variations of loaded carries, sled pulls and other things.

2. Wicked Awesome For Posture

Believe it or not, adding weight can help aid in building a better posture when it's done properly. It strengthens our muscles that are responsible for keeping us upright. This allows the body to stay in that position much easier when removing weight.

3. Powerful Calorie Burn

With recent studies done by the Compendium of Physical Activities, by rucking its possible to burn up to 650 calories within an hour, a massive 300 more calories than just regular walking. If you were to do about 5 hours a week of rucking, that's 3250 calories burned (nearly the equivalent to losing a pound a week alone). 

4. Let The Sun Shine Bright

Being out in the fresh air is always a huge benefit. It lowers stress, weighs down the cortisol levels and heightens Vitamin D and Testosterone Levels. As us guys age, maintaining and balancing our testosterone becomes more crucial. 

5. It's Safe & Pretty Easy To Do

Screw jogging since it's more exhausting than Rucking is. In fact, it may be even more enjoyable and can be done with better consistency. We all know regardless of your goals, consistency is the key along with eating right (I didn't say diet, just eating right meaning better but not completely depriving yourself). Another added benefit is that rucking is actually safer on the joints than regular jogging. 

Where do you start? Well, a good foundation would be to start with wearing about 10% of your bodyweight (say for a 200 lb man, it be a 20 lb Vest or Backpack). Work your way up little by little. Hell, I'm only using a 40 lb vest when I go out on my rucks. You don't need to go around looking like you're carrying a piano on your back, gradually build up until it feels more than enough to walk with. Very few people will ever use more than 100 lbs to ruck with. The only two people I know of who walked with 300 lbs was Bud Jeffries & Steve Justa. You don't need to push it that far, even on a hike, 50 lbs would be more than enough for most people. It's tough as it is and it can give you the workout of your life. If you could go a good distance with 100% or more of your bodyweight, that's pretty damn impressive and shows some serious strength and conditioning. 

Grab the Kensui Weight Vest to progressively load up using weighted plates. The smallest loadable is up to 80 lbs. The heaviest is loadable to 300 lbs. Save yourself a few bucks by using my Discount Code POWERANDMIGHT at checkout to get 10% OFF your order. If you order the 300 lb loadable, this saves you close to a whopping 25 bucks. Have a wonderful day and keep being amazingly awesome. 

The Benefits Of Animal Movement Strength Training

Fitness methods come and go and we never know what the next trend will come next. For some, a method is not a trend or something just discovered, it's a lifestyle or better yet, a style they take beyond the norm because it's part of their life and they want to master it. That's what Animal Style Training is like for me, I always go back to it no matter what I try and the path takes me back to a place where I can be my true self from a fitness stand point. There's always something to try and take on with the challenge and the ideals but moving like a beast in the wild just feels different than anything else.

Practicing it for so long, it always fascinates me on its origins and why it has stood the test of time. If you do enough research, you'll find that Animal Movement Training has its roots in Martial Arts & Wrestling. On the eastern side of the world, the mighty Shaolin Monks use animals as a testament to their success in Kung Fu and other arts by mimicking animals in their unique form. In the west, animal moves are a traditional conditioning method in Wrestling. Anybody who's been on the mat can still feel in their memory the pain and lactic acid build up from crawling like a bear or going backwards like a crab, walking like a duck or moving like a seal. 

In recent decades, Animal Moves are used more as a warmup in MMA schools and football teams use this method for conditioning. The Bear Crawl is the most common animal used because it's so damn simple yet can turn a weak kid into a rugged machine within less than a few months if not weeks. As good as that sounds, the benefits alone are far beyond just warmups and conditioning style exercises. The warmup version is just a beginning to what really comes into play. 

Believe it or not, moving like an animal in the wild takes on shapes and forms beyond what we could normally understand or what we've been taught. It's more of an untapped resource more than we realize and when you start to get into it, there's a boost of strength, agility and challenging aspects you may have never experienced before. Here are some benefits to help you understand this:

1. The Expansion Of Your Performance & Function

Our bodies are far more capable of doing amazing things than other traditional or conventional methods call upon. When we focus on something one dimensionally, the body will reflect on this and we wouldn't be using our full potential in the aspects of sports or in life in general. Nothing wrong with using other forms of exercises, matter of fact, some are pretty damn essential to do but yet, the demand for more versatile movements needs to be utilized. Practicing Animal Style Movements can do phenomenal things for our functionality and perform at a greater level. We are challenging the norm by moving in ways that are more in the 3D variety more than just focusing from a single point in training.

2. Quality Of The Movements & Mobility Training

As we practice moving like a wild beast, we form patterns that are in 3D which has a high potential of developing great mobility and joint lubrication. The muscles can be shortened or elongated but also with many cases, the activity in these positions build an incredible reservoir in the range of motion of the joints. Learning the aspects of the Lizard Crawl for example shows how the Core is in constant motion of twisting and rotating throughout the movement. This in turn will train the spine very well. The hips are getting mobilized and the shoulders are getting worked as well because of the support they provide while also rotating as you take each step. This exercise alone is a full body movement that develops incredible strength and movement quality in the body.

3. Restoration & Rejuvenation Of The Body

Our bodies and our brains were developed with similar movements to the animals. Think about it, as a baby, we learned to crawl, progressed to walking and than to sprint like there's no tomorrow. As we age, it becomes more and more important to maintain our quality of life by moving and keeping our strength, mobility and efficiency for as long as we can. For a lot of us, Animal style training can be seen as a fountain of youth that will revitalize the body. Animal moves also has great potential to target injury prevention and possibly getting rid of aches and pains. This method makes you feel like a kid again. 

These are just a small portion of the benefits you'll find when you practice Animal Movements. Be strong, get wild and be amazingly awesome.    

Top 10 Benefits For Doing Isometric Exercises

Training the body has many benefits. Some have more benefits than others. Isometrics has gone beyond beneficial to how it can create a lithe, sculpted and tremendous strengthened physique that will blow you out of the water. Granted Isometrics isn't the greatest exercise method known to man but with an addition to them you will benefit greatly. Here are 10 different benefits when you apply Isometrics.....

1. Building Muscle Mass:

Think you can’t build muscle without using weights? Think again. There was a study in the Journal of Physiology that put a trial group through an isometric strength program. They were testing the effects of isometric training versus dynamic training. The results of the study showed that force increased by 45% higher in the isometric group than when participants used concentric only training. They also saw a 5% increase in cross-sectional area in the isometrics group. Cross-sectional area means the width of a body part. Pretty sweet, huh?

2. Building Strength:

There was a study performed by the Journal of Sports Science in 2013 that measured static tension isometrics and how they improved force of a muscle. The results showed that participants had a 13.8% increase in maximal voluntary force after 12 weeks of isometrics.

3. Burning Fat:

Isometrics are very thermodynamic. They release a lot of heat when doing them, especially when you do full body isometrics like in the Isometrics Strength program. Now, I am not under the belief that exercise alone will help you lose all the body fat you need. That is mostly done in the kitchen. However, isometrics are super intense and will significantly contribute to fat loss if done on a regular basis.

4. Work Isometrics While Injured:

This is one of the coolest benefits. There is a type of isometric exercise that is perfect for rehab and help you gain strength while injured. The type of isometric is called Static Tension. When doing this type of isometric you are not putting any pressure on the joint like how you do when you perform weight lifting or even more strenuous body weight exercises. There is no movement with isometrics but you still help the injured area receive extra blood flow and nutrients through the contraction/relaxation of the exercise.

5. Do Them Anywhere, Anytime:

Have you ever traveled and thought, “Argh, I can’t do my workout because I didn’t bring my weights!” With isometrics you can continue to build strength even when you are far away from home. They don’t require any equipment. When you know how to build strength with isometrics its like having a full gym with you no matter where you go!

6. Reap The Benefits With Shorter Training Periods:

We all live super busy lives. Sometimes it may seem like you are running from morning until night. Did you know that isometrics workouts don’t require a lot of time. With some workout styles you have to rest for 2-3 minutes in between each set. And if you have 3-4 sets or more to get through for each body part, that requires a lot of time. With isometric exercises you only “rest” when you are transitioning to the next posture so you get the benefit in a super short period of time.

7. Improve Your Breathing & Lung Capacity:

Breathing is something that many of us do wrong. We let the stress of life get to us and allow our bodies to breathe shallowly. When doing the Isometric Strength program you are allowing your breath to lead you the entire way. So you learn & practice how to breathe properly which transfers into your daily life.

8. Improve & Enhance Your Grip Strength:

This benefit goes along with number 2 above but deserves special attention here. When you are doing other types of exercises such as the push up or the bench press you are not really focusing on grip strength specifically. However, when you are doing a full body isometric workout, every posture helps you improve grip strength. Why is this important? Because we use our hands every single day from opening doors to opening pickle jars. Having a strong grip helps in very practical ways.

9. Improve Your Muscular Imbalances:

 One of the biggest problems with other forms of exercise is that stronger muscles allow you to compensate for weaker muscles creating muscular imbalance. Let’s take the push up for example. At first, you might be even as you go up and down but as you fatigue most people start to shift to one side or the other creating imbalance. In isometric exercising, this doesn’t happen because you are isolating each muscle as you tense it.

10. Building A Laser-Like Focus To Enhance Focus & Concentration:

Isometric exercises set themselves apart as an exercise system because they drastically improve focus and concentration. You can’t just mindlessly go through the workouts with the TV on or thinking about your day. You must focus on each muscle as you tighten it. This helps build concentration which we all need more of.

Come and check out the new full Isometric Program (Click the link below)

Build Strength & Size With The 8 Week Isometric Strength Training Program

Stay strong and be healthy.