Take the 5 for 5 Challenge—five flights of stairs, five times a day.
Walking up and down the stairs is great exercise and burns calories. You can burn about 300 calories for 30 minutes of walking the stairs depending on the intensity of your workout. But, beware, 30 minutes is a lot of time to spend walking up and down stairs. It is hard work.
The advantages of walking the stairs?
They are many:
- You can walk the stairs anywhere there are stairs – offices, homes, stores
- We all know how to do it, no special training is needed
- No special equipment is needed, though if you are going to walk up multiple flights as exercise you need good shoes. I used to walk the stairs at work in high heels, but it was only for a floor or two. I had some scary moments, especially going down stairs where I almost catapulted myself over the edge a few times.
- You can do this exercise in short spurts. If you only have time to run a report up to a colleague two floors up from you that still counts as exercise even if you do not take the stairs again for another couple of hours.
- Stair climbing will exercise your legs particularly your quadriceps (front of the thighs) and your butt.
- Your heart will get a good workout.
- It is low impact and safe for your knee joints
But…
- Beware if you have knee problems, walking down stairs may cause pain. If your knees bother you going down stairs you can take the elevator down and walk back up or walk down one flight and walk around the floor, go down another flight and walk around that floor, etc. Giving yourself a little break every few minutes is easier on your knees than running down the stairs in one spurt of activity.
After your stair walking make sure you stretch your quads, hamstrings and calves. Those are the parts of your body that will work the hardest climbing stairs. You will be surprised by what good exercise it is and just keep thinking about all those calories you are burning.
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