There’s a reason why some of the most effective exercises tend to mirror movements in real life. It’s not because personal trainers and coaches lack imagination, but because the body doesn't care how creative your programming is — it cares whether you can climb a flight of stairs without grabbing the banister, for example, or if you can catch yourself from a stumble.
These are just a few of the benchmarks that matter in later life, and for elite performance coach David Higgins — who has trained everyone from Margot Robbie and Scarlett Johansson to Samuel L. Jackson, David Harbour, Game of Thrones' Richard Madden and the entire cast of The Batman, among many others — one exercise sits at the top of the list for anyone over 50: the step-up. Here’s why.