A Move You Should Do MONDAY – Steps
This week’s move is the Anterior Step Down/Posterior Step Up. That is fancy language for being able to go down the stairs reciprocally. A lot of people have a hard time with this. Going up stairs is ok, but coming down poses a challenge. When you go down the stairs, two major things have to happen:
- Your quads have to work harder. Due to the more upright posture of your trunk when descending stairs, the butt muscles (gluteus maximus) can’t work as effectively to help you out.
- You have to have adequate ankle dorsiflexion. This is the ability of your toes to come up towards your shin bone and if you have tight calf muscles, this can be limited.
Why does this matter?
If you turn your toe out when you descend stairs (a common compensation for the things listed above), it can create abnormal rotation at your knee, causing meniscal pain or patellofemoral pain (pain under your knee cap). But this pain doesn’t have to be! Try the solutions in this week’s video and make sure to pass it along to someone who might need the advice.
Because nobody has time to be in pain.
Have a great start to the week. Until next time…
