Stair climbing as an alternative to jogging / running

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Stair climbing as an alternative to jogging / running

Running can make us fit, but it has its own disadvantages. It’s inconvenient, if not impossible, to run in cold winter, where thick snow covers your running path and chilly wind makes you shiver non stop. Running is a high impact aerobic exercise that can wear off your shoes pretty quickly and might cause injury and blisters to your legs. Sometimes you don’t even have a proper place to run properly. If you are facing these problems, you might want to consider stair climbing as alternative to running.

Stair climbing is great if you live in or near a tall building with staircase and it’s hard to find a running path nearby. It’s relatively warm compare to jogging in snow during winter. It is low impact, which means your expensive sport shoes won’t wear away quickly, and it builds leg muscles for you to cope with difficult terrains. It burns fat too, just like jogging!

When you climb up the stairs, you are actually working against the gravity. Your body’s energy source (fat and carbohydrate) is converted into heat and potential energy according to E = Mgh (energy burnt is proportional to body mass and height climbed). That’s one great advantage over jogging on level ground, especially for heavy people because the energy converted is proportional to your body mass!

It is less effective to go down the stairs because you are not working against gravity. So it is best to take a lift down the building for the next lap, which is faster and easier than running down the staircase.

You can add weight to make your stair climbing more beneficial by putting heavy stuff (filled water bottles or heavy dumbbells) into your backpack, wear it, and walk your way up the staircase. Stair climbing with weight is good to train your muscle and it burns more energy than without weight.

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Readers’ contribution:

Carlota says:

Thanks for another great post! I like how you mentioned taking the elevator down, this is so important! I had a fitness trainer tell me to do that because it overly shocks your knees from the repetitive impact of going down the stairs.

I like to skip steps so that I’m stepping on stair step 1 then 3 (skip the ones in between) of course it helps to have a rail to hold onto for safety. Lifting your body up slowly onto the 3rd step is VERY EFFECTIVE for TIGHTENING the BOOTY (your butt cheeks ;)) I dislike doing floor lunges with bar bells and find it doesn’t hit the muscles I want to tone (glutes and thigh muscles), so skipping stair steps is the way to go!

Tagged as: exercise, fitness, Health, stiar climbing