Keeping Fit, Improving Balance, Losing Weight, Achieving Cardiovascular Goals -- Climb Those Stairs!

"By raising our heart rate, stair climbing helps protect against high blood pressure, weight gain and clogged arteries. This lowers the risk of developing chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, vascular dementia and even some cancers."
"Stair climbing also exercises our bones and muscles, improving strength, bone density and muscle tone. This is especially important for women in sedentary office jobs as they have a significantly higher osteoporosis risk than men."
"Incidental physical activities like stair climbing are also associated with improved mental health.They cause our bodies to release endorphins, the so-called feel-good hormones. They also provide time think and reflect - key factors in managing everyday stress and tensions."
StepJockey

 If there are stairs to climb at the workplace, take them instead of an elevator or escalator. You'll be exercising your body and clearing your mind and your brain will like it, too. If you live in a two-story home with a basement, that's two sets of stairs right there, where you live. If you get out recreationally often and climb hills you'll be promoting your own superior health outcomes. Just shake the lazy mentality off its perch on your shoulders and get going.

Think of it as a workout, because that is what it is, or can be, if you take it seriously enough. Taking the stairs option even casually, however, workout aside, is a good idea. The Harvard Alumni Health study issued a report pointing to their conclusion that climbing ten to nineteen flights weekly (two to four flights each day) has the effect of reducing mortality risk. How's that for a bonus?

www.active.com

That is no one-off study; quite a large number of other studies indicate that consistently selecting stairs can improve cardiovascular fitness, balance, gait, blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol and of course, weight loss. The lower body's muscles spring into action both ascending and descending stairs while the heart works hard on the ascent, sufficiently so to qualify as equal to a vigorous intensity workout; descending a moderate intensity action.

When you're in the act of climbing several flights of stairs in one go, your body's reaction of heavy legs and breathlessness is a more-than-ample signal that you're exercising aerobically. A study of current research results points to 30 to 160 minutes of serious stair-climbing on a weekly basis extended from eight to 12 weeks boosts cardiovascular fitness.

A research team from McMaster University had 24 university students perform a series of short, fast stair intervals with students climbing three flights of stairs (60 steps) three times daily and a one to four hour recovery between bouts. This protocol was continued three days weekly for a period of six weeks with instructions to climb the stairs one step at a time quickly as possible, and if required, using the railing. Aerobic fitness in the stair-climbers was boosted by five percent.

"Interestingly, a study from Taiwan in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise in 2017 found that walking down stairs can be even more beneficial than going up in some ways. It had 30 healthy but sedentary obese women (ages 60 to 82) engage in progressive aerobic training on five flights of stairs (110 steps), either by going only up or only down (they took an elevator to go the other direction), twice a week for 12 weeks, gradually increasing the number of flights per week. Both groups benefited, but while women going up stairs got more of an aerobic workout, those going down stairs had greater improvements in blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood sugar, bone density, and functional fitness."
Berkeley Wellness

A McMaster research team on another occasion involved two sets of subjects; one group performing 20-second episodes of stair-climbing (three to four storeys) three times, two minutes' recovery between each interval, while the second group did 60-second  bouts repeatedly ascending and descending either one or two flights of stairs three times  and with 60 seconds recovery between intervals. Each group did their workouts for six weeks, three days weekly.

The 20-second and 60-second interval workouts came in with similar heart rate response and fitness gains. Study subjects however, claimed the quick changes in direction in the 60-second intervals continually climbing up and down for two fights destabilized them and they voiced their preference for the 20-second interval of stair-climbing. Both studies concluded that for optimal results this simple time-efficient workout makes reaching fitness goals achievable.

The ability to go up and down stairs quickly and with confidence is a task worthy of preserving. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette