why does going up the stairs hurt so much

tammyclair

ok - I swim 5 days a week / 88 lengths in an hour. i am very heavy 201lbs, and old - 53, and my knees hurt! but i thought i was getting into shape. just went to up and down the stairs for 15 minutes - all so i can have an extra biscuit at red lobster tonight. now - i feel horrible. i can't stop coughing and my knees are killing me. i am very discouraged.

debrapeterson

I commend you for being on the stairs for 15 minutes I can only do 1 minute which is 4 floors. I hurt and can't breath but keep telling myself it will get better just keep it up. Its great you are swimming. I hope you keep at it get to feeling better afterwards. Now you go and enjoy your dinner tonight and maybe it will take your mind off those aches and pains for a while.

tammyclair

thanks Debra. i was beginning to think if my topic wasn't about eating too little or an HRM comment i was invisible. you keep at it too! good luck.

daphnemoon

Seriously don't worry about it - I've been a gym bunny non-stop for the past six months - I do 5 hours of intense cardio a week, strength training 3 times a week and yoga. So in theory I should be able to handle walking up stairs - but although I can go an hour of body combat without getting (too) tired, after only one flight of stairs on my way up to work I am huffing and puffing!

I think it is simply because you are not doing stair training all the time. I am fitter for combat because I spend a lot of time doing that, and if I spent a lot of time on the stepper then walking up stairs would be a lot easier. Which maybe I should actually do.

Good luck!

plarcade

I used to work in a shop and spent all day going up and down stairs, then I cycled home about 4 miles. My knees were killing me! The doctor told me that women have less muscular support around the knees and exercise like cycling and stairs are VERY tough on knees, even when you're very fit, as I was at the time. I would try some lower impact exercise for a while (swimming is great), or alternate with the stairs. I STILL have dodgy knees, so look after them!

jnanof

Well I can make it up 5 flights of stairs at the parking garage, feel a little burn and a little winded only because I am not warmed up. I can ride my bike 2 hours at a high heart rate. I can do Insanity and P90X workouts. I couldn't swim 2 Olympic laps if my life depended on it

Stair training is VERY strenuous. If you want to burn a couple extra calories for a treat, consider some core strengthening moves.
A strong core makes everything easier.

MisdemeanorM

ok - I swim 5 days a week / 88 lengths in an hour. i am very heavy 201lbs, and old - 53, and my knees hurt! but i thought i was getting into shape. just went to up and down the stairs for 15 minutes - all so i can have an extra biscuit at red lobster tonight. now - i feel horrible. i can't stop coughing and my knees are killing me. i am very discouraged.

I'm generally healthy. 5'8.5" and 165. "Need" to loose about 15 lbs. I used to swim a lot (I haven't been able to exercise in the last 10 months due to a family emergency) and do spin a lot, but stairs still kill me. I could do spin for an hour and swim a mile and a half non stop, but a flight of stairs winded me. We just bought a condo, and granted I am out of shape now, but my knees hurt and creak and pop a little as I go up just one flight. I think low impact is much better for me.

ChristySeeksBalance

I walk the stairs at work twice a day, 24 floors each time. I started doing 10 floors a day, and I seriously couldn't walk the next day. Or the day after that. My calfs and my quads were just cramped up like rocks. After I could actually walk again, I tried it again. And again. And I just kept after it. I added more as I could. It probably took me a month of doing it daily before I could do it for 15 minutes straight without cramping up and/or being really sore afterward.

Edited to add...I forgot to mention it makes me breath even harder than running. I've been trying to add skipping stairs on alternate floors, and often have to quit or slow down because I sound like I'm having an asthma attack even though i don't have asthma.

Bottom line, I think it just takes a long time to adjust to doing stairs! It does NOT come easily.

msiamjan

You could try building up to it slowly over time, instead of couch to 5K, do swim to stairs. If you try to do too much at once you risk pain and discouragment. How about doing 5 minutes, and then build up from there, so that in some weeks (5-10) you can do 15 minutes. Stairs are a super workout, but that's because they are so challenging.

paw247Pat

First of all 53 is NOT old, I'm 61 and don't consider myself old. Some days I feel like I'm 80 but that's another story!! I have bad knees, started 10 or so years ago with creaking and snapping with every step, no pain. Now painful to go up and down stairs, have no strength and trying to work through it at the gym, finding things that I can do without injury. I find that the elliptical trainer gives me a good workout and doesn't stress my joints. If it hurts, don't do it, don't risk injury. Keep swimming, thats really good for you.

j77r68

well here r my comments on the issue.... quick back story... i work at a busy coffee shop 45 hrs/week and my knees have hurt for the last year or so and than late june i went on mat leave and my knees got worse where i couldn't sometimes lean on one side, kneel on them whether soft or hard surface , go up or down stairs pain free or if i was kneeling to get up without hauling most of my weight up with a counter.(and i'm only 34) i've been working out on/off since late august but they never got any better sooo last month i went to a physiotherapist and she said it wasn't weight related or arthritis at all. my kneecaps were being pulled out of place by the muscles that surround the knees. i've been doing stretches and such and they are almost 100%. i'll have to keep up with the stretches so the muscles stay loose but i feel great, i can actually go down stairs with no pain, no cracking and walking straight !!!
talk to your doc, see if you can get a referral or try loosening the muscles in your thighs and quads
hope this gives some different insight
good luck

tammyclair

thanks for all the comments. i didn't even want the extra biscuit last night. laughing. oh what a web i spun for myself. thank goodness i didn't get an injury and still was able to have my swim this morning. i am going to take all the great advice and not give up on the stairs. but i will have a better motive next time i try it.

MisdemeanorM

I had one day when my son was in the hospital that we got kicked out of the room so they could do put in an arterial line - a sterile procedure so no one's allowed in. I ran stairs in the parking garage for like an hour. I think I ended up doing 70 something flights (both up and down). Anyway... I was SOOOO sore for like a week. I thought my calves were going to fall off! The nurses laughed at me for days because I could barely move around the room!!!

knightreader

according to my orthopedic doctor and my best friend, who is a physical therapist, walking up and down stairs for exercise is one of the worst exercises you can do. walking up and down stairs instead of using the elevator is fine, but just walking up, turning around and walking down turning around and walking back up and so on, is horrible for your knee joints. especially if you have weight to lose. swimming is great, as is cycling, for low knee joint stress exercises. my ortho even suggested next time i buy a house to buy a ranch.

if your knees hurt walking stairs and you still want to try to exercise that way, perhaps you can do it every few days and supplement the other days with non-impact exercises like swimming or simply walking. your joints, especially, your knees need time to rest and recover.

good luck!

tammyclair

this sounds like really good advice. thank you.