Step History & Evolution

A Fork in the Road - Intensity or Complexity?

In 1994, a study was published in the July Issue of the Journal of Metabolism titled "Impact of Exercise Intensity on Body Fatness and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism" by Angelo Tremblay, Jean-Aimé Simoneau, and Claude Bouchard.

The "Laval Study" as it came to be known by, showed that repeated high intensity work efforts followed by lower recovery periods, or "intervals", not only increased the overall caloric expenditure, but also had an "after burn" affect which continued to utilize fat following the intense workout.

Interval training had been successfully applied with Olympic atheletes training in swimming, track and field, and other sports, and was becomming increasing popular in recreational running and marathon training programs.

In addition to the "Laval Study", there was an impressive body of research that supported the benefits of Interval Training. Reebok University conducted further research, compiled information from existing research, and in 1995, introduced the Step Reebok Interval Program.

In the mid 90s, Step training was at its peak, and had quickly become the most popular class at clubs and gyms around the world. Millions of people had participated, and adapted to the vertical lifting activity.

As it continued to grow in popularity, step height became a concern for potential knee problems, although cross-training was encouraged to prevent overuse injury. The Slide Reebok program had made an attempt with lateral movement training, but it was not as easily adaptable to various fitness levels as was step, and somewhat limited in movement patterns. People loved step, and step was what they wanted to do - in every class!

High and low impact classes seemed to have disappeared from many schedules at clubs around the country. Once people got used to lifting their body weight, floor aerobics felt like a casual walk in the park by comparision. Besides, Step offered a class that could be either high impact or low impact - it was the participants' choice - and clubs wanted to please their members. The other plus was that step allowed for each participant to work at their own level in their own personal space, without the worries of getting in someone else's way.

No matter the mode of training, when something is done repeatedly, there is a chance of developing an overuse injury. Instructors became increasingly aware of the potential for injuries, even experiencing symptoms themselves from teaching 8, sometimes 10 and 12 step classes per week, and step height began to lower.

At the same time, step combinations began to increase in complexity. Creative instructors were introducing new ideas and variations and incorporating more dance-like movements into their step patterns.

With lowered step height and increased complexity, step training began to change. As step height decreased, stepping distance from the platform increased - in a seeming attempt to add back some of the intensity lost from the lowered platform height. Having taken this "step back" with one of the intensity variables of step training, speed became the increasing variable of choice for adding intensity.

Next: The Fork in the Road - Intensity & Interval Training

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