If you are trying to lose weight, climbing stairs as a regular exercise might be for you.
Stairs are available in many places. And research shows stair-climbing is more effective than walking on level ground.
“Overall, it is a fact that stair-climbing gets you fit faster and consumes more calories,” said Lauri van Houten, vice president of the International Skyrunning Federation. The organization oversees a number of activities that involve climbing.
“How many calories will I burn is the question everyone wants to know,” van Houten said. “Here’s the good news: The overall energy expenditure of the exercise depends on your weight. Therefore, the more you weigh, the more you burn,” she said.
Research shows you burn about 20 times more calories going up stairs than walking on flat ground. Even going down stairs, you burn around five times more because your muscles have to work to slow the body.
That might be all you need to know if you are trying to lose weight.
Dr. Alberto Minetti of Italy’s University of Milan has done a large amount of research on human movement — including stair-climbing. It is an exercise everyone can do and does not cost money, he said.
Minetti did the math to explain why going up stairs is so effective for burning calories in a short amount of time.
“To move 1 kilogram of body mass over one horizontal meter, you expend 0.5 calories,” he said.
But, he added, “If you move 1 kilogram of body mass vertically on stairs it’s 10 calories. So it’s 20 times the calories moving vertically rather than horizontally.”
Trained as a doctor, Minetti has spent his career as a researcher. He suggested that older people and beginner stair climbers watch their speed.
Minetti does his own stair-climbing at his home in Milan. He said he often takes a few deep breaths before going up the many stairs.
In a scientific study, Minetti makes the point that using your arms in stair-climbing adds extra power. Handrails offer safety, too.
The study notes that handrails are available along most stairs in very tall buildings. Using them increases “the muscle mass involved..." by getting the arms involved, the study shows.
“They are relatively small muscles in the arms, but better than nothing,” Minetti said.
If stair-climbing were an Olympic sport, Australian Suzy Walsham would own gold medals.
She has won 10 races up New York City’s Empire State Building — officially 1,576 stairs — and five climbs up the Eiffel Tower. Overall, Walsham has won more than 100 international stair races, and was once considered the top woman in the sport.
When she was living in Singapore, Walsham climbed up her 29-story building — 37 times straight. It took over four hours with short breaks for coffee or water. She covered a vertical distance of 3,200 meters.
Walsham told the Associated Press that stair-climbing is a good form of exercise for many kinds of people.
“Many people struggle to run as they age,” she said, noting the exercise is “harder on the joints.”
She said stair training is a great substitute for running.
Stairs are everywhere — one flight, two flights at home, inside very large buildings, in stadiums, at work, in shopping malls, in the subway.
Stair-climbing does not take much time. It is easy to build up, adding a few flights of stairs every day or week. Stair-climbing can also help improve balance.
And it can easily become part of an exercise plan.
Yuri Yoshizumi won last year’s women’s division of the Stairclimbing World Championships in her native Osaka, Japan. She completed the 285-meter climb — 1,610 stairs — in 10 minutes, 20.06 seconds.
“Stair-climbing is an easy sport for beginners and the general public to get into,” Yoshizumi told the Associated Press in an email. She said the exercise helps to “strengthen your muscles and your cardiovascular system in a short amount of time.”
Yoshizumi noted that cities usually have many public stairways for people to climb.
“Just using the stairs instead of the escalators at (subway) stations and department stores is a good way to get some exercise,” she said.
I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm John Russell.
