I got up to my floor and realized that I had some soreness in both my legs, and elevated heart rate, and breathing heavier than normal. Didn't take me long to get up the stairs (wasn't keeping track but I'm assuming less than a minute) but still, I realized what a great workout that was.
I did some digging to try to find some studies on the benefits of taking the stairs rather than using the elevator. This article talks about a study that showed when participants that lived a sedentary lifestyle started using the stairs instead of an elevator, they found some fairly meaningful results over the course of 12 weeks:
After three months, treadmill tests showed their aerobic capacity - the amount of oxygen the body can use - had increased by 8.6 per cent.
There were statistically significant falls of almost two per cent in waist circumference, weight and body fat levels, while blood pressure dropped by 2.3 per cent and levels of 'bad' LDL cholesterol-by 3.9 per cent.
If you think about it, you're body has to do quite a bit when climbing the stairs. The entire weight of your body has to be lifted up on just one leg 6-8 inches off the ground. Your abdominal and back muscles have to fire up in order to keep your body from falling forward. Upper body has to be tensed in order to keep your center of gravity in line in order to stay balanced. We take it for granted but climbing up stairs is quite an ordeal for your body to take and because of that, it shouldn't be a surprise that you can get out of breath so quickly when climbing them.
I came across a workout program by Virgil Aponte called The Ultimate Stair Exercises that involves nothing more than using stairs for a great workout. Probably the best thing that makes a lot of his workouts nice in this book is that you don't need any equipment at all. The book includes workouts for fat loss, and some for strength, and some for power. Best of all, he has workouts for the very beginner, and some advanced workouts for those that have been training awhile.
These are workouts that everyone can do because everywhere you go, there are stairs. Your house, at your work, at a park, and even at your church.
Ultimate Stair Exercises
When I think about people using this workout, I envision people using it on their lunch hour at work. Get a group of people together and take 30 minutes at lunch to hit the stairwell and do one of these workouts.
I tried out one of the beginner workouts and one of the advanced ones and I felt great afterwards (out of breath and my legs didn't want to move anymore but, overall, felt like I really got a good workout in).
So give it a try and let me know what you think. Click the link below to find out more about the Ultimate Stair Exercises:
Ultimate Stair Exercises
Disclaimer: There are affiliate links to the Ultimate Stair Exercises on this page.
www.leanbodytraining.com
