Running up and down the stairs..?

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DancingDreams1234
DancingDreams1234 Posts: 165
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi, I don't own a treadmill and I can't go outside to run because I just don't want people to see me out running. So how many times do you think I'd have to run up and down the stairs to equal two miles or so? It has 11 steps.

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  • bizco
    bizco Posts: 1,949 Member
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    Get a tape measure and measure the distance. There are 5,280 ft. in one mile.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    Why do you need to measure it in miles and running up and down stairs wouldn't be the equivalent of running 2 miles anyway unless it was a very hilly course. Go run outside, you'd be surprised how little other people care about what you're doing.
  • fitbum19
    fitbum19 Posts: 198 Member
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    it doesnt matter how far you go. Just push your limits for as long as it takes for you to feel accomplished. that's all :-)
  • jess7386
    jess7386 Posts: 477 Member
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    i second just sucking it up and running outside. it'll be good for your confidence - you're working towards a healthier body, and you should be proud of that! others care very little about what you're doing - I was running outside at 200+lbs.

    Good luck!
  • 37434958
    37434958 Posts: 457 Member
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    Why do you dont want people to see u?
  • ilovejillian
    ilovejillian Posts: 10
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    Agree that running and stairs are quite different. I run 5 days a week 5 miles and do stairs ( 4 hospital stairs flights) at work one day. one day rest. My stair workout is more difficult than running. I am also able to plug the exercise into MFP for the calorie burn...or wear a HRM. I can get my heart rate up much more easily with up and down stairs than I do with running. I log mine as time not miles. But of course if you are truely checking to see mileage I cant really help more than the previous post. I have a buddy and time flies!
  • ehsan517
    ehsan517 Posts: 114
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    stairs a lot more work intensive. i used to do this a long time age where i would sprint up 3 flights of stairs...slowly jog down...and repeat about 5/6 times. get high intensity cardio training i found. be careful thou..you dont wanna trip,lol.

    for more suggestions on cardio at home look up sixpackshortcuts on youtube...their channel has a ton of great home exercises which literally helped me shed kilos when i couldnt go out or hit the gym. at one point i was even walking up and down the stairs with 15kilos in each arm...really toned up my legs.
  • fitniknik
    fitniknik Posts: 713 Member
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    Go run outside, you'd be surprised how little other people care about what you're doing.

    genius! I never thought about it that way
  • vienna26
    vienna26 Posts: 115 Member
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    I used to run up and down the stairs when my treadmill broke i just used to do it so id of ran up and down so many times so like 50 and see how long that took me and went on from there to build it up til i was doing at least half an hour
  • madrose0715
    madrose0715 Posts: 463 Member
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    Stair climbing does not equal running, jogging or walking. Stair climbing is one heck of a tough workout and far more work on the cardio system.
  • climbamnt
    climbamnt Posts: 190 Member
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    Get a pedometer with a mileage options, I personally love my FitBit. It tracks flights of stairs, steps, miles, sleep paterns, calories burned, and works with MFP.
  • mrs_mouw
    mrs_mouw Posts: 1
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    One of the exercises on the database here is jogging up and down the stairs. Instead of distance, you just type in how many minutes you did it for. I do that often at work.
  • ajhugz
    ajhugz Posts: 452 Member
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    Just go run outside! I was afraid too. People stare and I've had a few make evil comments. Now I just walk to the lakefront for my warm up and run on the path. Be confident. You might inspire someone else to start running also. I live on the 11th floor and I'm considering running stairs.
  • sevsmom
    sevsmom Posts: 1,172 Member
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    When I use the stepper I have to go for 30 minutes. . .on a fairly high level...to get to 3+ miles. I don't think I could go up and down the stairs in my house OR my building for that length of time. I used to be worried about running outside because of what people *might* think. The more I got into running, the less I cared. Now I wish I didn't see people I knew while running because they honk at me and scare the crap out of me!! LOL

    Hopefully, soon, you'll give outdoor running a fair trial. It's soooo much better than beind cooped up inside!
  • gauchogirl
    gauchogirl Posts: 467 Member
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    I never exercise for distance, but for time. Especially if you're just concerned with getting some exercise in. Don't let all the little stuff get in the way of accomplishing the main goal, JUST DO IT.
  • coolraul07
    coolraul07 Posts: 1,606 Member
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    Stairs and walking/jogging/running are like apples and aardvarks! I can consistently walk at 3.6mph at 10% incline or 3.3mph at 15% incline on home treadmill for a LONNNNNG time (e.g. 30-90 min) with my HR averaging around 70% maxHR! However, stairs will get me at 80% maxHR within 2 minutes easily! I work in a skyscraper and haven't used the elevators in weeks to increase my cardio. During my longest continuous trip, I'll ascend 236 stairs in 3m 45s. Much better than the 6 min in took when first started, but still much room for improvement because I pause 1-5 sec on each landing and I'm still no 100% consistently breathing thru my nose!

    I only count stairs as # of steps and time taken. I just got a FitBit last week and it counts them as "stories climbed", so I use that to tag those sessions as discrete activities. As soon as my HRM arrives, I'm confident that I'll prove that my caloric burn is much higher than even my 15% incline workout!

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