January is upon us, and, due to the weather and New Year’s Resolutions, many of us are searching for new ways to stay in shape. Although we hear that taking the stairs is beneficial for your health, you might be wondering… what are some benefits of climbing stairs?
The following are six benefits of climbing stairs:
1. It conditions your cardiovascular system
Climbing stairs is beneficial for your health because it improves the condition of your cardiorespiratory system. It is a form of aerobic exercise, which is more commonly referred to as “cardio.” Cardio exercise improves the efficiency of your heart and lungs by forcing your body to adapt to the increased demands for oxygen. It adapts by increasing the number of mitochondria in its cells.
If you remember from high school biology, the mitochondria is the “powerhouse” of the cell. It creates energy your muscles can use from the energy it receives from what we eat.
Interestingly, current research suggests that the health of a mitochondria in an organism’s body is an important factor in the longevity of the organism. More on the biology of the mechanisms here.
This increased efficiency has long-term benefits on health. The benefits of consistent cardio exercise include…
-Burns calories
-Reduces chances of illness and chronic diseases
-Boosts your mood and
-Improves sleep
2. It builds muscular strength and endurance
Another one of the benefits of climbing stairs is that it builds muscular strength and endurance. The constant movement of your legs to get up the stairs encourages your muscles to adapt to this repetitive movement. Your legs will become more able to perform this movement, and it will feel less strenuous in the future when you do it. You will be able to move more, with less effort, than before you started exercising consistently. Your muscles will be less sore when you do longer activities, such as taking a long hike.
These muscular benefits are important as you age, as well. As we get older, people tend to lose muscle mass. Eventually, this decreased muscle mass leads to negative consequences such as falls and a loss of independence. This is why it is especially important for older people to do strength training.
3. It doesn’t require a gym membership
Stairs and elevators are everywhere. There are flights of stairs both outside and inside. People who live in cities with tall buildings likely have more access to indoor flights of stairs. If the weather is not good enough to go outside and you don’t have access to an indoor flight of stairs, most gyms also have a stair stepper machine.
For many people, stairs and elevators are a usual part of life; taking the stairs instead of using the elevator is a great way to get in some extra movement into your day. This also means climbing stairs can sometimes be easier to build into your routine, depending on where you live.
4. It can burn a lot of calories
Though some say a benefit of climbing stairs is that it burns more calories than jogging, this is not necessarily the case. While burning calories can be considered a benefit of climbing stairs, it does not necessarily burn more calories than jogging. You would have to be jogging very slowly, barely much more than a walk, to burn more calories climbing stairs.
With that being said, climbing stairs still does burn more calories than many other activities, including walking without an incline. It burns more calories than sitting, and is better than jogging for building muscle.
Depending on your goal, climbing stairs can still be better than jogging overall. Climbing stairs is great for the other reasons on this list, other than for the calorie burn.
Before deciding jogging is a better use of your time, because it is likely to burn more calories, please consider your goals first. Are you trying to lose weight? Building muscle might be an important use of your time compared to just cardio exercise. You want to be able to hike further? The time you spend on your feet might be an important consideration, rather than just how intensely the exercises you do are. Overall, it is just important to consider what you are actually hoping to accomplish with your time, rather than only considering what burns the most calories. If calories burned is a consideration, however, climbing stairs might be the exercise for you.
5. Increased joint and bone health and durability
Importantly, going up the stairs can cause less stress on the joints, which is great if you have any medical conditions or are injury prone. This only applies to going up the stairs, though. It is definitely less impactful than running, for example. People with bad knees or hip injuries can keep in shape by climbing up flights of stairs, rather than jogging or other high-impact sports. If you want to only go up, you can usually take the elevator down, if you need to. You can also use the stair climber machine at the gym, which involves only moving your body up.
On the other hand, walking down stairs does cause a bit of impact on your joints and muscles. This is actually a good thing, though, because the stress on the joints, when not done to the point of injury, actually encourages the joints to be healthy. It increases blood flow, which encourages repair and strengthening of bones and joints.
The positive impacts of weight-bearing exercises is demonstrated in runners. While it is common to think of the injuries caused by running (usually too much), people don’t often know that long-distance runners actually have a lower risk of arthritis over the long term. This is likely because of the constant impact running has on the joints and bones. As long as it is done carefully and responsibly, weight-bearing exercise is actually positive for joints and bones.
This is the same when going down stairs. The weight of your body landing as you walk down stairs is good for joint health, as long as it isn’t excessive, and you don’t have previous injuries.
6. It is a practical form of fitness training
The last on this list of benefits of climbing stairs is that it is a practical form of fitness. Climbing stairs consistently helps with multiple practical fitness issues that people regularly face. Overall, the benefits of climbing stairs that falls into this category include: it is good at preventing falls in the elderly, it helps maintain quality of life, it can translate into many other hobbies, and it is a great form of cross-training for hiking.
Practical for the elderly
One of the benefits of climbing stairs is that it is great for preventing falls in the elderly. This is because climbing stairs improves muscular coordination and endurance. It is such a practical form of fitness, meaning climbing stairs translates to your muscles being able to do useful, everyday movements. Climbing stairs requires balance, so climbing stairs for older adults will help maintain balance in this way.
This helps maintain the quality of life for seniors by increasing their ability to perform daily tasks, such as climbing stairs. Physical abilities are, in some ways, “use it or lose it.” This means that as people age, the less activity they do, the more difficult it becomes to do those activities when they do mean to do them.
Eventually, even the things that young and healthy people take for granted, such as climbing stairs, is difficult for many elderly people. This is a contributing factor to losing independence as they age. One of the benefits of climbing stairs is that it helps keep aging people healthy enough to maintain independence.
With the above in mind, elderly people and people with compromised balance should be especially careful on stairs. Only do this if there is support available, and if the person feels comfortable with their ability to not fall. It might be tempting to encourage an older family member to use stairs to help stay in shape, but if they’re at risk of falling, it is likely better to focus on building muscular strength and balance in a safer way.
Practical for hobbyists
Finally, one of the other benefits of climbing stairs is that it doesn’t just improve the physical abilities of people striving for independence: It is also a great form of cross-training for a number of other hobbies, including hiking.
Climbing stairs is great practice for people who are trying to stay in shape for their other pastimes, such as hiking and running. The muscular endurance and cardio benefits that come from climbing stairs will increase your ability to do just about any physical hobby you’re interested in.
Overall
While there are plenty of other ways to stay in shape, the benefits of climbing stairs is great for people looking for options.
