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I've noticed a lot of prejudice towards single leg compound exercise. Variations of the squat and things like lunges, Bulgarian Split Squats, and step ups are frequently labeled sissy or ineffective. IMO, if you really think that then you probably haven't done them.

There are so many advantages to them. One of the major ones is that you can effectively target certain areas of the leg with a heavy functional movement. So that you can bring it up in size in a way that directly influences you primary lift like squat or deadlift. So many people waste their time on leg extension, which, while as an accessory may add size to the quads they will hardly do shit for influencing your squatting ability or adding size to your entire body. But you can prioritize quads or hams very easily with subtle position changes with single leg variations with the advantage of actually doing an effective squat variation instead of an "extra" isolation.

Another great advantage is in the area of injury. If you are getting over a back or knee injury then there are many reasons why these are a good way to go. For one thing the load on the back is reduced a great deal. Also, the forward lean needed is reduced so extensor forces on the back are greatly reduced. Similar reasons for the knees. This is harder to explain but it's basically the mechanics of it which make it very difficult to overload the knee without using a weight that is beyond the hip flexors ability. With the bulgarian split squats this is pretty much impossible. BTW, if I refer to split squats I mean bulgarian split (back leg elevated) squats and NOT lunges, although they're ok too.

The first time you do bugarian splits with heavy ass dumbells hanging from your hands you will probably have to force yourself to do the second set. Don't knock this stuff until you try it.

On to the purpose of this. Here is an article by Mike Robertson (from T-Nation, sorry can't help it) that has a lot of variations and explanations. It has a bunch of images so I'll just link it.

Single Leg Supplements

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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.

Nice article.

You say that leg extensions are a waste of time, but personally I like to use them "single legged"for a nice good stretch (warmup) before I start my squats. They may not add size like you said, but they sure do get the wheels ready to build.

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Actually I think in the right context extensions can help add size to the quads to some extent BUT the reason I used them for a comparison is because people tend to rely on isolations to "isolate" which makes sense, lol, but there are much better ways which can allow you to use MUCH higher intensity to get at certain parts of the leg WHILE actually helping you along the road to bigger strength gains. This while helping to keep your knees healthy.

Leg extensions, believe it or not, won't help you squat very much. I.E. they mostly make you better at extensions. For that very reason I would personally reccomend against using them for warm-up to the squat. I would stick to squatting to warm up for the squat. The neural recuitment is different. And what about the hams, glutes, and all the rest?

Leg extensions will warm up the quads, but a good warmup not only warms up the muscles it gets you ready for the heavier weights and if done optimally will result in heavier loads. Since extensions only help warm the quads but you really need light squats for a proper warmup (which will of course serve to warm you up) all you're really doing is introducing unnecessary fatigue with the extensions, if anything.

I'm a big fan of single leg exercise and they have just a huge number of benefits. Obviously they are not a mainstay and in the end the main way to get huge wheels and a huge squat is to squat. But what I like about many of the single leg variations is that you CAN make a habit of them and stay healthy. While, for instance, putting blocks under your heels during squats to get at the quads is something that, while effective, is not something your knees will love you for in the long run (to give an example).

Everybody, I am posting this only as an overview of the step-up exercise and not to de-throne the squat!

Step Ups Soviet Style
By: Mauro Di Pasquale
Almost a decade ago, a retired Soviet hammer thrower came to the conclusion that traditional forms of squatting were not the best way to strengthen the muscles of the thighs and hips. Many in the Soviet Union considered this hearsay, as the squat was the king of leg training in that country just as it was, and is still, in the United States.

Ten years ago, the full squat was the foundation of exercise programs for almost all elite athletes in the Soviet Bloc nations, whether they were weightlifters or not. Soviet athletes - be they wrestlers, runners, fencers, soccer player or swimmers - all squatted.

But because the retired hammer thrower had won the gold medal in the 1976 Olympic Games and because he was a respected graduate of the Central Institute for Physical Education and Sport in Moscow, his opinions were taken seriously.

His name: Anatoly Bondarchuk. His studies led him to conclude that a particular form of what we'll call the high step-up had two significant advantages over the standard back squat. Bondarchuk concluded that high step-ups, firstly, produce greater gains in thigh and hip power and secondly, cause fewer injuries.

Bondarchuk does his research and coaching in Kiev. His fellow Soviet coaches and sports scientists were skeptical about his conclusions. However, as time passed and he was able to convince a few athletes and coaches, in a variety of sports, to drop squats from their routines and adopt the high step-up, it became clear that be had made a significant breakthrough.

Many of the athletes using his "new" exercise began to make gains in power that were far beyond what they had made using only the squat.

We qualify the word "new" because, in one form or another, the step-up has a fairly long history. A review of dozens of pre-1900 books in the Physical Culture Library at the University of Texas revealed that the step-up was commonly practiced before the turn of the century.

In fact, Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent, who was for years the director of physical training at Harvard University, used a form of the step-ups as he was devising one of the first known methods of cardio respiratory testing.

Sargent's method, first used over 80 years ago, is called the Harvard Step-Up Test. It involves stepping up, at a timed pace, onto a bench or chair approximately 20 inches high for a set period of time and checking the pulse rate at predetermined intervals.

But the step-up was also used to strengthen and develop the hips and thighs. As weight training grew in popularity in the 1920s and '30s, the step-up with extra weight began to appear in books and magazines of that era.

However, the squat with added weight was also given an enormous boost in America during this same era thanks to several crucial factors: Firstly, the wonderful lifting of the young German immigrant "Milo" Steinborn, who could do a full squat with more than 500 pounds, secondly, the publicity given to Milo's world-record-breaking abilities in weightlifting, and finally, the career of Joseph Curtis Hise, who not only gained a great deal of strength and muscle size with high-rep squats but also had the ability to fill other bodybuilders with enthusiasm for this arduous but effective form of training.

Who knows whether the step-up with weights would have become more popular had Steinborn and Hise not appeared on the scene and raised the reputation of the deep knee bend, putting it at the top of any serious trainer's list of "must" exercises? In any event, the squat became the dominant hip and thigh exercise in America in the 1920s and has remained so ever since.

When the Eastern European nations, led by the Soviet Union, began to assert themselves athletically after World War II, one cornerstone of their success was the squat. For a time, they turned to the West, particularly the United States, for training theory; but as the years passed and they developed their own coaches and sports scientists, they began to rely more and more on their own research. It was this tradition of self-reliant research that led Anatoly Bondarchuk to challenge the supremacy of the squat.

One thing Bondarchuk concluded was that the heavy back squat was potentially dangerous to the structure of the lower back. In fact, according to his studies, it can be demonstrated that the back squat places a load on the structure of the lower back that, in the bottom position, is at least twice as heavy as the load on the bar.

The actual amount depends on the speed of descent and ascent. The faster you descend and the faster you reverse direction and begin to arise from the bottom, the greater the load on the lower back and, according to Bondarchuk, the greater the chance of injury.

Bondarchuk also noticed that athletes who were pushing for those extra few reps on a set of squats almost always sank an extra inch or so at the bottom in order to get a bit of "bounce" to push them through the sticking point of the exercise.

For this reason, and because he observed that in no sport did the athlete ever find himself in the normal full-squat position, Bondarchuk concluded that it would be safer to use a form of weighted step-up.

When he began his research, he was unsure of several things. He wasn't sure how high the bench or chair, onto which the athlete would step, should be. As he began to experiment with different heights, he soon realized that he could achieve complete development of the thighs and hips by using varying bench heights, depending on the needs of the individual athlete.

Being well-schooled in anatomy and physiology, he understood that the higher the bench, the more stress would be placed on the hamstring muscles on the rear of the thigh. Conversely, he understood that a lower bench would result in more work being required of the quadriceps muscles on the front of the thigh.

Finally, he concluded that the ideal position generally occurred when the athlete was standing on the toes of one foot with the other foot flat on the bench and the top of the raised thigh parallel to the floor. If, however, the athlete was weak in the hamstring area, he should use a slightly higher bench.

(I find that a straight leg toes dori-flexed to be best from a safety standpoint. Its easier to catch yourself.zzzz)

According to research done by Osse Aura, a professor of biomechanics at the Finnish Institute of Physical Education, the hamstring muscles should be approximately 75% as strong as the quadriceps muscles. If that ratio is not maintained, the chance of injury increases, while the chance of maximum performance decreases.

Bondarchuk agrees with Aura's figures and uses a form of the leg curl and leg extension to determine the relative strength of these two muscle groups. (This is unnecessary.)

If he finds the quadriceps of a certain athlete to be too strong, he will instruct that athlete to use a higher than normal box height and thus place more stress on the hamstrings. If, on the other hand, an athlete's hamstrings are too strong, the box height will be lowered so that the quadriceps may be stressed more completely.

Obviously, since an athlete cannot do a high step-up with even 50% of the weight he or she can use in the full squat, the problem of the "double loading" stress on the lower back is greatly reduced. The lower back experiences far less stress when an athlete does a high step-up with 100 pounds than when he does a squat with 300 pounds, assuming that both of these lifts are maximum efforts.

Also, since it would be impossible for an athlete to "bounce" out of the bottom position in the high step-up, this exercise completely eliminates the problem of the bounce. This is an important consideration since the complete full squat, especially when done with a "bounce," is potentially harmful to the structure of the knee.

The high step-up starts out similar to the regular squat. The weight is placed on a standard bar and the bar is placed on a squat rack, as would be the case with a squat. But then things are different. Before squatting, normally you step backward, but with the high step-up you move forward, toward the platform onto which you will step.

But if your gym isn't set up to allow you to step forward, don't be concerned. Simply be careful as you position yourself for the step-up. You may need to construct a box if you can't find a bench or sturdy chair of the proper height. And if you have a box or chair that's a bit too tall, don't forget that you can use a 100-pound or 45-pound plate under your bottom foot.

Or, for that matter, you can use pieces of plywood to achieve the exact position you need. You should also be careful to keep your shoulders more or less over your hips as you step up onto the box or bench; don't bend forward at the waist in order to do the step-up. Also, slightly bend the knee of the leg onto which you lower yourself. It takes some of the shock out of the descent and is a bit safer. (You need to control the descent and not allow yourself to bounce onto your lower leg or you'll be in for some very painful shins and possible injury).

Several years ago the Bulgarian weight lifting team began to drop all back squatting in favor of high step-up. By that time, many Soviet lifters had abandoned squats and made their higher lifts in the snatch and clean and jerk than ever before. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this involves the career of Leonid Taranenko, the current holder of the world record in the clean and jerk in the superheavyweight class.

Taranenko has done the clean and jerk with the amazing weight of 586 pounds. Think of it! Almost 600 pounds lifted from the floor to full arms' length overhead. But to many longtime lifters in this country, it is perhaps even more amazing than it has been at least four years since Taranenko has done a back squat of any kind.

Besides his practice on the snatch and clean and jerk, the only form of heavy leg training that Taranenko does is the high step-up with weights…Heavy weights. His best in this exercise is three reps with each leg with 396 pounds. Taranenko's coach, Ivan Loginovich, one of the foremost trainers in the Soviet Union, was one of the coaches who worked with Bondarchuk to perfect the high step-up and use it as a replacement for the back squat; and one of the proofs found in this particular pudding is Taranenko's many world records.

One thing coaches in the Soviet Union and Bulgaria noticed was that those athletes, both lifters and those in other sports, who dropped the squat and used the high step-up developed more complete muscularity than those who simply squatted.

Many of the coaches say that the legs of those who work hard on the high step-up look more like those of someone who did sprinting and jumping as well as squatting. Apparently, the balance required in the high step-up calls more muscles into play, producing fuller, shapelier development.

As far as how to work the exercise into your training routine, one way would be simply to eliminate squats and replace them with the high step-up, using the same sets and reps and handling as much weight as you could in the step-up.

Another way, if you have a desire to push your strength levels up several notches, would be to do the high step-ups as the Bulgarian National Lifting Team does them, which is as follows (assuming that the athlete can do a maximum of two reps in the high step-up with 170 pounds):
1. Begin with one set of 8-10 reps with no weight, and
2. Proceed to 45 pounds for six reps (45x6), 110x3. I32x3, 150x3, l60x3 for three sets, 135 x6 for three sets and sets of 115x3 to failure.

The Bulgarian team uses the pulse rate as a gauge to let them know how far to take the sets. They believe that each of the moderate to heavy sets should produce a pulse rate of 162-180 beats per minute. The lifter doesn't begin his next set until his pulse has dropped to between 102 and 108. The Bulgarian team does virtually this same workout five or six days a week, along with quite a lot of other leg work that goes with the snatch and the clean and jerk.

Unless you are young (21 or below) and in unusually good condition, we don't recommend that you do such a demanding workout without at least one day of rest between sessions. If these low repetitions don't appeal to you and you'd like to stick with more traditional approach for step-ups, you might simply do several sets of progressively heavier warm-ups, go to three heavy sets of six reps, and finish off with three lighter sets to failure, aiming for 15-20 reps per set. And if that doesn't give you a super pump, you need to have your oil checked.

If you do adopt either of these routines, we suggest you drop all other heavy lower body exercises such as leg presses, front squats and hack squats. Be careful not to overtrain. The trick in all exercise programs is to do enough to stress the muscles so that they become larger and stronger, but not so much that they can't recover in time for the next heavy session.

Give this result-producing exercise a try. It has literally worked wonders with the strength and power athletes in Eastern Europe, and with their bodybuilders as well, most of whom swear by the high step-up.

Make no mistake, squats are a wonderful, effective exercise: but perhaps the high step-up can allow you to make even more gains than you could with squats alone. It's worked out that way in the iron game behind the Iron Curtain.

By Tony Boutagy www.tonyboutagy.com
Bulgarian Squats
Introduction
It was rumored in weightlifting circles that when the Bulgarian's began to match the Russian's dominance in the strength sports that they had a secret training weapon. That secret weapon, as it turned out, was not a secret at all, just hard work and excellent programming under super coach, Ivan Abadjiev. Interestingly though, many ascribed the powerful legs of the Bulgarians, in part, to the athlete's performing single-leg squats with their back foot on a bench to supplement their other squatting movements. This enabled the Bulgarian weightlifter's to normalize any strength imbalances between limbs and not to excessively load the back in the same way heavy back squats do. You'll sometimes see these named Sprinter's or Borzov Squats, after the famous Russian sprinter, Valeriy Borzov.

Primary muscles used:
Quadriceps, gluteals, hamstrings, and adductors.

Set up:
*Stand in front of a bench and place one foot flat on the bench so that the ankle is just off the end;
*Position the foot on the floor far enough forward that it will be comfortable to squat without the heel lifting up or the hip flexors of the non-working leg being strained;
*Use either dumbbells in both hands or a barbell on the trapezius.

Descent:
*Squat down, which will allow the hips to push back and down, the knee to come forward of the toes and the torso to learn forward from the hips;
*Squat as deep as you can, the lowest range being when the lumbar spine begins to lose its neutral curvature or the hip flexors of the non-working leg become uncomfortably stretched or the knee touches the ground.

Ascent:
*Drive straight back up to the starting position, making sure that the ankle, knee, hips and torso all move with the same speed and timing.

Key Points
*Keep the front foot flat on the floor throughout the movement;
*Although the knee will come forward of the toes, it's imperative to keep the patella tracking with the middle toes.

Bulgarian Split Squats
Introduction
The Bulgarian version of a split squat (also called a back foot elevated static lunge) is exactly the same Bulgarian squat with the exception of the bench being replaced with a step (or low box). This lower back foot position allows for a greater stretch in the hip flexors and a larger range of motion on the working knee.

Key points:
*Keep the front foot flat on the floor throughout the entire range of motion;
*Maintain correct knee tracking;
*Aim to touch the hamstring on the calves in the lowest position;
*Keep the truck completely upright from start to finish, as the tendency will be to lean forward;
*Bulgarian split squats are a diagonal movement pattern and not an 'up/down' vertical exercise (like most people perform lunges). Therefore, the descent involves the knee and hips moving forward and down and the ascent is up and back as one smooth movement.

Tony Boutagy is a strength coach based in Sydney, Australia. He is the director of the Sydney Sports & Athletic Performance Centre and a doctoral student at ACU. Visit his website at www.tonyboutagy.com

I do step ups in my leg training quite frequently but I usually do them after full squats. I think they are a great excercise!

Yeah! I use them as an adjunct for instance during an upper/lower. Basically as an alternate. I've never used them in the way the article suggested, although I'm sure it would be effective. After the last set I did it was all I could do to re-rack the bar and stumble forward to my knees trying to catch my breath .

Here is another step-up article:

The Step-up : a real squat alternative?
by Scott Bird | September 4, 2006

In the 1920s - particularly in the US - weight training began gaining favour with the public at large, and the Step-up began finding itself in various books and magazines. However, the back squat gradually started to dominate (largely due to the efforts of the German Henry ‘Milo’ Steinborn and Joseph Curtis Hise) and the Step-up was all but forgotten.

The Step-up seems to have been largely forgotten as a weight-bearing exercise for the thighs - primarily due to the dominance of the back squat. This article may just make you reconsider its use.

What is it?

The Step-up - as the name implies - is nothing more complex than stepping up onto an object, then stepping back down from it. Although it is an incredibly simple exercise, there are a few things to be aware of.

Factors to consider

Perhaps the most important of these is the height of the step. The basic exercise works the hips and thighs, and the step height adjust things in favour of the quadriceps or hamstrings. A higher step works the hamstrings harder, a lower step targets the quads (1).

According to Anatoly Bondarchuk, the ‘normal’ or ideal step height (for those with perfectly balanced quad and hamstring strength) is such that when the leading leg has the foot flat on the step, and the corresponding thigh parallel to the ground, the trailing leg has the toes just touching the ground (but the heel elevated) (1). This will naturally vary from person to person, and the use of a weight plate is common to bridge small gaps (it’s unlikely that your training partner will have exactly the same requirements as you).

In addition to the step height, speed and number of reps both play crucial roles in determining the effectiveness of this exercise (for your personal goals). The usual rules apply - in general the reps will be lower and the breaks longer when training for maximum strength, and the reps higher/breaks shorter for hypertrophy goals.

The starting/finishing distance of the feet from the step also makes a difference, with a larger gap emphasising the Gluteus Maximus and a smaller gap emphasizing quadriceps (2).

Muscles used

The target muscle group is usually the quadriceps, though the weighting of this can be adjusted by altering the step height and gap as indicated above. Other muscle groups involved are (2) :

Synergists

* Gluteus Maximus
* Adductor Magnus
* Soleus
* Gastrocnemius (Second Leg)

Dynamic Stabilizers

* Hamstrings
* Gastrocnemius (First Leg)

Stabilizers

* Erector Spinae
* Trapezius, Upper
* Trapezius, Middle
* Levator Scapulae
* Gluteus Medius
* Gluteus Minimus

Antagonist Stabilizers

* Rectus Abdominis
* Obliques

As you can see, this is well and truly a compound exercise, and targets similar muscle groups to the squat.

Variations

Bodyweight step-up
The simplest form is a bodyweight-only step-up onto anything of a reasonable height (usually something below knee height). The speed, number of reps and step height will all play roles in the effectiveness of this exercise for your goals. Because of this flexibility the step-up can be used as a warmup, conditioning or strength training exercise.

Dumbbell step-up
As per the bodyweight step-up, performed whilst holding a dumbbell in each hand.

Barbell step-up
As per the bodyweight step-up, performed whilst holding a barbell across the shoulders in the same manner as for a back squat.

Step-ups wearing a weight vest
As per the bodyweight step-up, performed whilst wearing a weight-vest (such as the V-Max).

Former East Bengalese marathon runner Sri Chinmoy switched to weight-lifting in the mid 1980s (when he was in his 50s); setting a personal record for Step-ups done whilst wearing a 50lb weight vest by regularly performing 100 in 1996 (aged 65). Once again, the usual rules of rep ranges and breaks apply.

Inspired by Chinmoy’s effort, the slightly more spritely Ashrita Furman (6) completed 2,574 step-ups (bodyweight only) onto a 15” bench in one hour, later that same year.

Performing the step-up

Although almost any form of step is suitable for bodyweight step-ups, a large flat surface will be increasingly necessary as the weight lifted climbs up. One solution - which enables a quick changing of height - is a Step-Up Bench Accessory, such as this one from Gill Athletics.

For bodyweight-only or dumbell step-ups, the pins (of a power-rack) themselves are a quick and often handy step.

When using a weighted bar, begin with the same stance and bar position as for a back squat. As you step up onto the box/bench/step, keep the torso as erect as possible (try to keep the shoulders roughly over the hips throughout the movement). On descent, slightly bend the leg you’re coming down on to (it’ll reduce the shock and increase safety).

Comparisons to Squatting

I realise that powerlifters are not going to suddenly stop squatting in favour of performing weighted step-ups. However, there are a couple of benefits to the step-up which might favour their inclusion in your routines :

The weight used in a barbell (or heavy dumbbell) step-up is much less than that of a heavy squat performed by the same lifter (1). This difference alone greatly reduces the stress inflicted on the lower back.
The step-up eliminates the bounce which is sometimes used during a squat (particularly in the deep squatting favoured by bodybuilders and Olympic weightlifters). This lack of bounce reduces the impact to knees.

Working them in

Perhaps the most obvious way to incorporate them in your routines is to simply replace squats with step-ups. Realistically, though, there are a couple of things to consider :

Look at your current quad : hamstring strength ratio. Although theories differ as to the ‘perfect’ ratio, the figures suggest that the hamstring muscles should be approximately 60-80% as strong as the quadriceps muscles. Failure to maintain that ratio increases the risk of injury.
The relative strengths of these two muscle groups are usually tested using two exercises you may or may not already be using in your workouts - Leg Curls and Leg Extensions.

If the quads are much stronger than the hamstrings (according to the above tests), a higher step should be used. Conversely, if the hamstrings are found to be stronger, a lower box should be used.
What are your goals? Are they leaning more toward hypertrophy, mobility or absolute strength? Step-ups are effective in the same rep ranges as squats - whether you choose to use sets of 1 or 100.
Success has been had by Russian (and later Bulgarian) Olympic weightlifters who replaced much of their squat training with step-ups. An excellent example of this is Bulgarian Leonid Taranenko, who successfully lifted 266 kg (586 lb) in the Clean and Jerk at the 1988 Olympics. This was after 4 years of intense Step-up training rather than the traditional employment of the back squat.

The Bulgarian team used (and possibly still do) the pulse rate as the primary indicator of when to increase the weight. Following warm-ups and a bodyweight-only set of 8-10 reps, triples (with increasing weight) are used. Following each set a pulse rate of 162-180 bpm is expected, and the next set not started until this has reduced to 102-108.
Conclusion

Step-ups can be used in many ways, and are a great alternative to (not necessarily a replacement for) the back squat. Give them a try.

References

1. Bulgarian Leg Training Secrets
By Angel Spassov, Ph.D., D.Sc. and Terry Todd, Ph.D.
www.overspeedtraining.com/legsart.htm

2. ExRx
Barbell Step-up
www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Quadriceps/BBStepUp.html

3. Sri Chinmoy
www.srichinmoyraces.org/nz/sri_chinmoy

4. Ashrita Furman
www.ashrita.com/records/all_records/

Bump for Pity.

How did I ever miss this thread???? Thanks for the bump, Eric.