If you live in an apartment complex or condominium, you will often have to deal with it: the stairs. For some people, it is a tedious piece of exercise. Because whether you are in the gym every day or not: you always come up panting, puffing, and with a red head. How is that even possible? We explain how.

Lots of energy

Maybe you’re enthusiastically training for a marathon. Maybe every day leg day is for you. Yet you are completely out of breath when you have climbed several flights of stairs. At such a moment you quickly begin to doubt your fitness, but that is unnecessary! A personal trainer and a cardiologist explain. Because climbing stairs? That is an absolute top sport!

“Getting out of breath when you climb stairs doesn’t mean you’re out of shape. Your heart rate goes up, and you need more oxygen,” explains trainer Jordan Syatt. No wonder you start breathing considerably heavier! Cardiologist Nieca Goldberg concurs. Unless you really throw yourself into a StairMaster workout daily, it’s really not surprising that such a short burst of energy causes panting and huffing.

Intensive

Climbing some stairs just really intense, sums up Syatt. “You’re basically doing lunges up, AND taking on gravity.”

On top of that, you probably lead an active life even outside of climbing stairs. Going to the gym regularly, working out in the open air, or just walking: we put our bodies to work. In addition, endlessly climbing stairs is extra tough because of this.

Jason Fitzgerald, a fitness expert at Greatist, states, “Running up twenty steps is very different from simply running twenty paces. It combines an aerobic exercise with a strength exercise. Even if you have great fitness, you’ll soon be out of breath with that.”

Workout

Fortunately, you can give yourself a helping hand by training smartly. Now, of course, we’re not suggesting that you should just sprint back and forth through the stairwell daily – your neighbors will undoubtedly not be happy about that.

Syatt suggests incorporating extra split squats, lunges and reverse lunges into your regular workout to train stair movements. And oh well: if that StairMaster at the gym is free anyway, it might not be a crazy idea to spend part of your workout there!

Source: Women’s Health Mag, Happy in Shape, Adobe Stock