Written by Sam Coleman | Co-founder
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
Believe it or not, when you were a kid, running up and down the stairs was probably at the top of your list of fun things to do - behind chasing down the ice cream truck and riding bikes around the neighborhood, of course.
Heck, you might’ve even gotten a piece of cardboard and slid down them, or found a creative way to make it down the railing without your feet touching the floor. At the time, you were likely having so much fun that you didn't even notice your pounding heart and heavy breathing.
While the thought of running up and down the staircase may not elicit the same joy it once did, we think it warrants a spot in an adult's fitness routine just as much as it does in a child's playtime toolbox. It's an ultra-accessible way to work out, and this article will not only show you how to turn the plain old stairs into a calorie-torching regimen, but we'll also cover:
- What makes stair workouts good
- Benefits of stair workouts
- Benefits of the staircase vs. Stairmaster
- Workout ideas for taking your cardio and fat burning to the next level
Ready to feel the burn? Then let’s go.
Are Stair Workouts Good?
This depends on your definition of good. If you’re the type of person who takes the escalator or has sore knees, then no, stair workouts probably won't fit under your "things that are good" list. But if you are looking for an effective cardio and leg workout that burns fat and helps strengthen your lower body, and you have healthy knees, then yes, stair workouts are great.
Climbing up and down the stairs is one of the best activities you can do when it comes to losing your love handles and toning your hips, glutes, thighs, and calves. Stair workouts are a combination of strength and cardio, and they burn a ton of calories.
Besides burning fat and calories, here are a few other reasons why stair workouts deserve a spot in your gym routine.
- Stairs are totally free and easily accessible.
- Similar to assault bike workouts, it's an effective cardio and strength workout in one.
- Stairs help improve your cardiovascular and muscular endurance.
- It can be combined with other activities like weight lifting to create a well-rounded program that addresses aerobic and anaerobic training.
- Climbing up and down the stairs is a time-efficient way to exercise that burns a ton of calories in a short amount of time.
- It puts your glutes, quadriceps, and calves under significant time under tension.
- Climbing stairs is great for everyone - from beginners to advanced exercisers.
Benefits of Stair Workouts
Staircase and Stairmaster workouts (more on this later) are tough but come with great benefits that make that burning sensation oh-so-worth it.
1. Burns fat and helps you lose weight:
Climbing up and down stairs is an intense workout that activates a lot of muscles at the same time while your heart beats like crazy to keep up. This is true whether you do the stairs for longer at a moderate intensity or go all in for a short amount of time, like with HIIT. For every liter of oxygen you breathe, you burn five calories, and trust us, you’ll be breathing in a lot of O2 during your stair workouts.
Plus, this will increase your demand for oxygen after training, known as EPOC or Excess Post Oxygen Consumption. You’ll be burning calories and fat long after you have finished your stair workout.
2. Improves cardiovascular health:
High-intensity workouts like stair climbing will increase your high-density lipoprotein (HDL, good cholesterol), which helps improve your blood circulation and lower the risk of heart disease. Plus, it helps lower your blood pressure and your risk of having a stroke.
3. Increases muscle strength:
Because you’re training against gravity and your body weight as you climb up and down the stairs, you’ll increase the strength of your lower body muscles and help improve core strength too. A cardio exercise that also builds muscle? Sign us up!
4. Better balance:
Every step you take on the staircase and the stair stepper is a single-leg stance. Every time you take a foot off the ground, your body has to stabilize to stop you from falling over. Performing regular stair workouts while focusing on going up in a straight line will improve your single-leg balance and is a great way to strengthen stabilizer muscles. You can challenge your balance even more by staring straight ahead the duration of your stairs workout.
5. Builds cardiovascular endurance:
Because stairs involve the large muscles of the lower and upper body, a large amount of blood is pumped to and from the heart to support this movement. This improves your cardiovascular endurance.
6. Improves mental health:
Cardiovascular activities like stair climbing have been proven to reduce anxiety and depression1. Plus, cardio helps your body produce feel-good endorphins, which put you in a better state of mind. Ever felt better after a cardio session or a heart-pounding AMRAP workout? Now you know why.
Staircase vs. Stairmaster
Both are good options depending on what you have access to and your preference. If you like being able to set the time, distance, or intensity during a workout, the stair climber benefits are likely for you. On the other hand, if you enjoy the convenience of using the stairs outdoors or in your house, a staircase workout is a great option.
All of the benefits we listed above apply to both standard stairs and a stair stepper, but there are three additional staircase benefits that a Stairmaster doesn't have.
1. There is a shorter learning curve with staircase workouts.
First, with the staircase, there is a shorter learning curve compared to the Stairmaster. With the Stairmaster, it will take some time to find your groove and find the correct time, distance, and intensity. Plus, most likely, it is going to kick your behind the first couple of times. A simple set of stairs lets you ease into it at your own pace - no learning curve required.
2. Staircase workouts are versatile.
With staircase training, you’re free to use your arms and upper body to propel and balance while exercising. Plus, you can stop and do upper body exercises on the stairs, like push up variations such as incline and decline push-ups. Not so with the Stairmaster. Unless you’re an advanced user, you’ll need your arms to balance, which takes the upper body out of the equation.
The Stairmaster is great for your lower body but the upper body, not so much.
3. Stairs are better for back pain.
Finally, if you have any low back issues you should use the staircase and not the stair machine. There is a tendency for exercisers to slouch or lean forward on this machine once they get tired and this may stress the lower back.
If you’re aware of this, you need to remind yourself of good posture. Like your mother used to say: Stand up straight!
The Best Staircase Workouts
Here are some great circuit workout options for you to check out. We promise they'll all get your heart pumping, breath rate up, and the sweat pouring. Pro tip: You can also burn a few extra calories per day by opting to take the stairs in your office building instead of the elevator.
Staircase Circuit Option 1 (Beginner):
If you’re a staircase beginner, give this workout a shot. And don’t just jump right into it, either. Perform a bodyweight warm-up for a few minutes with some squats, lunges, and inchworms - or any other dynamic exercises you'd like to include.
Perform each exercise in this circuit (except for the push-ups) for the length of the staircase. Rest for 1-2 minutes after the circuit and repeat another 2-3 times. Trust us, your leg muscles will love it! Just don't forget a few cool down exercises when you're done.
- Walk up the staircase 2-3 steps at a time, so you reach the second or third step with one large step.
- Take the stairs down one step at a time until you get to flat ground.
- Start with your right leg, and hop on your right foot, taking two steps at a time the entire flight of stairs, and walk down one step at a time.
- Run up one step at a time and walk down one step at a time.
- Perform incline push-ups, 8-20 reps.
- Do high knees one step at a time, and walk down one step at a time.
Staircase Circuit Option 2 (Intermediate to Advanced):
If you are an experienced stair exerciser and looking to step it up (literally!), we've got a calorie-torching routine that will also burn fat - no personal trainer required! Again, warm up for three to five minutes with dynamic bodyweight exercises to get you ready for this tough workout.
Perform each exercise in this circuit (except the push-ups) for 15 seconds each, or the length of the staircase. Rest for 1-2 minutes after the circuit and repeat another 2-3 times.
- Run up the stairs as fast as you can, and then walk or jog down.
- Hop on one foot, starting with the left foot, taking one to two steps at a time.
- At the bottom of the stairs, perform incline plyo push-ups, 6-10 reps.
- Face right and perform side high knees up and then down the stairs, making sure the entire foot lands on the stairs each time.
- Face left and perform side high knees up and then down the stairs.
- At the bottom of the stairs, get into a lunge position by placing one leg about 2 feet in front of the other. Do deep lunges, keeping your core engaged and trunk upright, taking 2 or more steps at a time.
- Perform decline push-ups, AMRAP for 1 minute.
The Best Stair Stepper Workouts
If you'd rather use a stair stepper machine, try either of these ideas for a heart-racing, fat-torching routine.
Glute-Focused Stair Stepper Workout:
Give your glutes the attention they deserve with this booty-building workout. Repeat 2-3 times for a total of 3-4 circuits. To really build muscle, start the routine with these glute activation exercises.
- Slow climb for 1 minute.
- Take two steps at a time, starting with your left leg, alternating legs for 30 seconds (at the same speed).
- Slow climb for 60 seconds.
- Sidestep for 60 seconds, 30 seconds on each side.
- Sprint for 30 seconds.
- Slow climb for 60 seconds
- Double step for 30 seconds.
- Slow climb for 60 seconds.
- Sprint for 30 seconds.
Stair-Climber Aerobic Circuit Workout:
In the market for a great workout that activates the whole body and will burn calories? Start with an easy three-minute warm-up either using body weight moves or a slow pace on the stair stepper. Once you're warmed up, follow these directions for the ultimate aerobic routine.
- Get in your starting position, and begin at a slow pace while holding the handrails for two minutes.
- Increase the climber speed by two levels for two minutes. Let go of the handrails if you can balance well.
- Return to a moderate pace for one minute.
- Take two stairs at a time as you climb for two minutes at a moderate pace.
- Increase by two levels for two minutes.
- Return to an easy pace, holding the handrails for one minute.
- Increase the speed by three levels for two minutes and let go of the handrails if you can balance.
- Return to an easy pace holding the handrails for one minute.
- Go up in speed three to four levels and go all out for two minutes.
- Cool down at an easy pace for two to three minutes.
More Ideas for Stair Workouts And Exercises
The training above is a great starting point when it comes to your stair workouts. But if you want to make it even more challenging while adding some variety to your stair training, you've come to the right place.
In staircase training, you can use the stair as a tool like a weight bench to perform bodyweight exercises. Using the circuit templates above, you can insert any of the following exercises for variety and to make it even more of a full-body workout.
Here’s a list of non-running exercises you can perform on a staircase that will work well in any routine and continue increasing your heart rate.
- Elevated Splits Squats
- Incline Push-Ups
- Decline Push-Ups
- Stair Crawl (up and down)
- Box Jump
- Mountain Climbers
- Broad Jump
- Triceps Extensions
- Knee Tuck
- Step-Ups
- Calf Raises
If you have a stopwatch handy or want to use the stopwatch feature on your phone, all stair exercises can be timed. Consider performing as many reps as possible with good form within a certain time frame with a recovery interval, like interval training. Some suggestions are:
- 20 seconds of work/10 seconds of rest
- 30 seconds of work/30 seconds of rest
- 30 seconds of work/60 seconds of rest
- 40 seconds of work/20 seconds of rest
With the Stairmaster, your upper body work is limited but this can be overcome by combining your cardio circuit and strength circuit in the same training routine. Using the circuit training above, finish one round, rest for 2 to 3 minutes, and perform a circuit of upper body moves before completing another Stairmaster round. Any dumbbell, resistance band, or body weight upper body moves work well here.
Aerobic & Strength Stair Stepper Routine:
The sky is the limit as far as variety goes. To get you started, we've put together a sample routine. To complete the cardio portion, follow the stair stepper aerobic circuit training workout we explained above. After one round, move on to the strength portion, which can look something like this:
- Unilateral Dumbbells Floor Press: 6-12 rep each side
- Dumbbell Bent Over Row: 12-15 reps
- Step Back Biceps Curl: 12 reps
- Half Kneeling Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 6-12 each side
- Dumbbell Reverse Fly: 12 reps
Complete 2 circuits of the strength training portion, rest 2-3 minutes, and then finish with another round of aerobic circuit training. Don't forget to include the best foods for after a workout to help your muscles repair.
How Many Stairs is a Good Workout?
If your goal is simply to improve your health, a Harvard Alumni Health study states climbing 10 to 19 flights of stairs per week may reduce your mortality risk2. This is advisable if you want the health benefits of climbing stairs without breaking a sweat.
If you want to open those pores and feel the sweat come pouring out, pick a staircase with 15 or more steps and perform the staircase training routines we highlighted above.
How Long Should a Stair Workout Be?
In terms of time, starting with 15 to 30 minutes works well. If you are new to stairs, start with 15 minutes and slowly build up to 30 minutes. When you can perform 30 minutes or more, it’s time to focus on workout quality and not quantity.
When you’ve got better endurance, step up the intensity rather than add time. Perform the training above for 25 to 30 minutes and increase the intensity of your sprints. Make sure you allow for optimal muscle recovery time, as the harder your intensity, the more time your body needs to recharge.
Get in your stair stepping starting position!
If you don’t have any pre-existing knee or back issues, the staircase and the Stairmaster are great options to include in your workout split. Both help burn lots of calories in a short amount of time, increase lower body and core strength, and train every major muscle in your lower body.
Using the training above two to three times per week combined with a session or two of resistance training will have you looking toned, buff, and sculpted in no time.
Related:
- 9 Best Stair Steppers For All Budgets
- 5 Best Recumbent Bike Workouts to Torch Fat
- 6 Best Fat Burning HIIT Workouts For Weight Loss
References:
- M, Guszkowska. “[Effects of Exercise on Anxiety, Depression and Mood].” Psychiatria Polska, 1 July 2004, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15518309/.
- Rey-Lopez, Juan Pablo, et al. “Associations of Self-Reported Stair Climbing with All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality: The Harvard Alumni Health Study.” Preventive Medicine Reports, vol. 15, Sept. 2019, p. 100938, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335519301123, 10.1016/j.pmedr.2019.100938. Accessed 13 Sept. 2019.
Sam Coleman
Author