Climbing Stairs As Exercise
Now that we’ve fully integrated into a 9/80 schedule at work (we work 9 hours a day and get every other friday off), I’ve found even less time to exercise. Ok ok, I wasn’t exercising much even before we made the switch haha. But in my newfound zest for exercise, I’ve started climbing stairs at work every single day. I take a 5-10 minute brisk walk to the highest building on campus, walk up 10 flights of stairs, and then cool down with the walk back. The whole process takes 20-30 mins which is nothing really but it’s better than nothing for a person who does ZERO exercise normally. It’s quite sad actually! After I’m able to climb the 10 floors without stopping (I get really out of breath after the 6-7th floor I’m a wimp!), I will try walking the 10 floors twice and keep increasing thereafter. Maybe after a year of this I can attack Half Dome? We’ll see haha.
Some benefits of stair climbing
– works the leg muscles in particular the quadriceps (front of the thigh) and your butt
– intense activity for the heart and leg muscles because you are carrying your body weight against gravity
– low impact and safe for the knee joints so long as you follow the guidelines of not doing too much too soon and you do not have any existing knee problems that may be aggravated. Walking down is harder on your knees so it’s advised to take the elevator down and only climb up which is what I do
– you can burn an avg of 300 calories for 30 minutes of stair climbing
I find that it’s an easy way to get some type of “fitness” in in my busy schedule and I like having an afternoon break everyday!
Posted: 5 September, 2007 in Health/Diet/Recipes.
Tags: climbing, exercise, stairs
Comments
Comment from yangbot
Posted: September 7, 2007 at 6:19 am
glad to hear that you’re finally working out!!! I want to do the half dome too! now are you drinking water regularly yet!?
Comment from Kleo
Posted: March 13, 2008 at 8:43 am
Good for you! I know this was a while back for you, but some tips for new readers. If you are morbidly obese, especially 50-100 pounds over, take your time. One to two flights can leave you dizzy, fast heartbeats and panic. Take your time over a period of months. Benefit is not how fast you do it, it’s just do it at your pace. Dealing with stairs has other issues for obese, it’s fear of a heart attack which triggers tightness of chest muscles, heavy breathing which can hyperventilate ad sometimes rib muscle spasms that mimick heart pain. Being normal weight, heart attack is not something of concern when climbing stairs. For the obese, it’s on top of the list of why not climb them and that fear screws you up big time mentally.
The best way for someone of normal weight to understand is to eat a full buffet meal, then have a 100 person on your back and climb the stairs. That’s the feeling when people are morbidly obese. My workout is not going up and down my stairs at home 20 times per workout. I lost 30 pounds and still have 80 more to go.
Thanks for your story.
Comment from Kleo
Posted: March 13, 2008 at 8:51 am
Typo at end, my workout is NOW going up and down the stairs 20 times.
Comment from Weight Loss Blog
Posted: December 15, 2008 at 1:55 pm
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Comment from che
Posted: September 5, 2007 at 9:40 am
wow, good job kim! 10 floors is impressive! i still havent gotten off my lazy butt to start exercising again. i used to walk up the stairs at work when i was working out… now the thought of it just hurts, haha…