I couldn’t leave my building today so I resorted to stair climbing (I live on the 10th floor).
FWIW I still prefer running outdoors (wind, fresh air, birds, other runners and yogis…), but apparently stair climbing is more effective to burn calories, even more if you take 2 steps at a time.
If you do both, is there any proportion that works best for you? like 2 days running and one day stair climbing? alternating days?
Any drawback doing too much stair climbing?
I do 2700 steps, 2k elevation gain every friday (for the last 6 months) + hiking. My cardio has improved drastically but I am still terrible at running. No drawback really - maybe too much upper leg muscle eventually?
I live on the 4th floor, my breathing doesnt even noticably increase after climbing up, which is great.
Btw exercise is for building muscle and improving heart health. Dont delude yourself into thinking you’re burning a notable amount of calories, there’s a lot of misinformation out there. You lose weight by dieting.
I wish more people understood this. You can ruin a 2 hour workout with 5 minutes in the pantry, when it comes to weight loss.
CICO, it’s just physics.
See: college professor that lost weight eating nothing but Twinkies for a month, but he was eating at a calorie deficit every day.
It’s true that it all comes down to the deficit but it’s easier to create a calorie deficit when you include exercise. When “making weight” in the run up to fights I used to meticulously calorie count and aimed for a 1000 calorie a day hole.
When you’re burning 3500 calories, eating 2500 doesn’t feel uncomfortable at all (except towards the end where your fat levels get very low and your body is just constantly telling you you’re hungry).
But yeah, it’s all just numbers in the end.
Any drawback doing too much stair climbing?
If you do it before running, your muscles can be over-stressed at the start of a run, increasing risk of impact injuries. So make sure to give yourself recovery time after stairs before you do a hard run again.
Done in this way, you can build up your support muscles which will actually decrease the risk of running injuries.
Variety is always welcome in my book.
If you can’t go anywhere, another option is jumping rope. 10 minutes of jumping rope is about equivalent to jogging for 30 min.
I personally prefer a slightly weighted (.8lb) rope with the mass concentrated in the rope portion rather than the handles.
I use the stair machine regularly after a workout. Not all the time, but often. It’s very exhausting. I have a fitness watch and my heart rate is in the 170s for the majority of it.
I find it really helped my leg muscles develop better. Especially my thighs and the muscles connecting to the knee.
What about running up the stairs?
That’s what I do… my running route has flights of stairs in it.
