is going up and down a flight of stairs a good cardio?

Options
amybea12
amybea12 Posts: 5 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi! I was wondering if any of you workout gurus could give me the low down on just plain walking up and down a flight of stairs, like in my home. Is that good enough cardio? And how come I've been doing it for three days, and I'm up 4 lbs?? I've been eating correctly too.

Replies

  • Damiilla
    Damiilla Posts: 66
    Options
    I think you need to be a little more specific on how long you're doing it for/how many stairs/etc....?
  • amybea12
    amybea12 Posts: 5 Member
    Options
    Well, I read an article about ways to burn 150 calories. All of them were 30 min, burn 150 caloires. Except walking up stairs burned 150 in 15 min. So I thought, half the time sounded good to me. So I thought that walking down the stairs wouldnt burn as many calories as going up does, so I figured it all out, and I walk up and down, up and down, for 20 min, and supposedly burn 150 calories. Just wondering if that was enoigh for weight loss, or maybe my legs would gain muscle too fast. Are my legs the only ting getting a workout, cause it sure feels like it lol.
  • mndamon
    mndamon Posts: 549 Member
    Options
    Gotta be honest, it feels like there's too many attempted shortcuts in this. You're making efforts though so please don't take it like I'm dogging your idea here, just feels like maybe you could use some different direction.

    First, going up stairs will burn probably close to twice as many calories as going down would, think of it like raising the resistance on an elliptical or the elevation on a treadmill. Legs getting muscle is what you want, it's not going to "bulk you up", it will eventually lean you out so if you're feeling a burn then keep doing what you're doing.

    Just keep in mind, simply doing stairs periodically will probably help you lose weight but I'd still suggest doing some weight lifting or resistance bands or something for the rest of your body. The more muscle you build then the more calories you burn even when you're just sitting around.
  • amybea12
    amybea12 Posts: 5 Member
    Options
    yes I totally understand what you are saying. If I have to workout an hour or two everyday, I just give up, bc I'm a big lazy sissy baby. I just wanted to start out slow and work my way up. Just wondering if using my stairs was a stupid idea lol. But I think I'm going to look into cuircut training. I want to tone up and lose weight, that sounds like the way to go for me. Thank you for your response too!
  • Determinednoob
    Determinednoob Posts: 2,001 Member
    Options
    Any activity that burns calories is fine. You could also instead eat 150 calories less and get the same result as far as body composition. The best thing to do is heavy weight lifting as has been mentioned. Here is a ton of info for that and fat loss and nutrition and training in general.

    http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=146519303
  • SelkieDiver
    SelkieDiver Posts: 260 Member
    Options
    yes I totally understand what you are saying. If I have to workout an hour or two everyday, I just give up, bc I'm a big lazy sissy baby. I just wanted to start out slow and work my way up. Just wondering if using my stairs was a stupid idea lol. But I think I'm going to look into cuircut training. I want to tone up and lose weight, that sounds like the way to go for me. Thank you for your response too!

    You could do circuit training at home. Go up and down your stairs for 4-5 minutes, stop and do push ups for 1 minute, back to the stairs for 3 minutes, stop and do sit ups for 1 minute, back to the stairs for 3 minutes, stop and do lunges for 1 minute (alternating legs), stairs for 3, stop and do squats for 1 minute, finish with 5 minutes on the stairs. You've just toned your entire body and done 20 minutes on the stairs for cardio.
  • xarge
    xarge Posts: 484 Member
    Options
    http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2002&issue=04000&article=00021&type=abstract
    Results: The mean oxygen uptake and heart rate during the last 30 s of ascending were 33.5 ± 4.8 mL·kg-1·min-1 and 159 ± 15 beats·min-1, respectively. During the descent, oxygen uptake and heart rate during the last 30 s of the climb were 17.0 ± 3.8 mL·kg-1·min-1 and 107 ± 18 beats·min-1, respectively. The estimated gross energy expended during ascending and descending were 19.7 and 9.0 kcal, or equivalent to an intensity of 9.6 and 4.9 metabolic equivalents (METs), respectively (or 10.2 and 5.2 kcal·min-1, respectively). The caloric cost of stepping up and down a step was calculated to be 0.11 and 0.05 kcal, respectively.
  • nixicat
    nixicat Posts: 1
    Options
    Yes! Going up and down a flight of stairs is a fine cardio. If you do it for 15-20 minutes at a time, it might just burn the 150 calories you mention, or more, depending on your weight and how fast you are going.

    There is a saying that: The perfect is the enemy of the good. It might be ideal to exercise for 40 or more minutes a day to get the results you are looking for... but 20 minutes is better than zero. If you can consistently keep up 20 minutes a day of climbing and decending the stairs in your house, then right on! You will gain the benefits of that much cardio, which is not insubstantial. If you make that your daily habit, you will start to feel better and have more energy. After a while, you might find that you WANT to do more, or add a different workout at another time, or start going on walks or playing a sport or whatever. Or not, which would be fine, too. What matters is not whether you are doing the absolute best, most calorie burning, high intensity cardio you can do for two hours a day, at least if your goal is just to be lean and healthy. All you need for lean and healthy is to just get in a daily habit of moving more and consuming less.

    The more you move, the better it feels to move. The more you use your muscles, the easier it gets. Exercise improves health not just by helping people control their weight, but it makes every system in your body work more efficiently. It improves immunity, psychological well-being, pain tolerance, every possible marker of health. And every little bit helps, as long as you do keep doing at least a little bit, every day.

    Don't let yourself be discouraged by anyone who tells you that you could be doing more, or better, or different. The exercise you DO is better than the exercise you could do, but won't. And with that, I'm gonna go climb some stairs!
  • RedArizona5
    RedArizona5 Posts: 465 Member
    Options
    Yes! Going up and down a flight of stairs is a fine cardio. If you do it for 15-20 minutes at a time, it might just burn the 150 calories you mention, or more, depending on your weight and how fast you are going.

    There is a saying that: The perfect is the enemy of the good. It might be ideal to exercise for 40 or more minutes a day to get the results you are looking for... but 20 minutes is better than zero. If you can consistently keep up 20 minutes a day of climbing and decending the stairs in your house, then right on! You will gain the benefits of that much cardio, which is not insubstantial. If you make that your daily habit, you will start to feel better and have more energy. After a while, you might find that you WANT to do more, or add a different workout at another time, or start going on walks or playing a sport or whatever. Or not, which would be fine, too. What matters is not whether you are doing the absolute best, most calorie burning, high intensity cardio you can do for two hours a day, at least if your goal is just to be lean and healthy. All you need for lean and healthy is to just get in a daily habit of moving more and consuming less.

    The more you move, the better it feels to move. The more you use your muscles, the easier it gets. Exercise improves health not just by helping people control their weight, but it makes every system in your body work more efficiently. It improves immunity, psychological well-being, pain tolerance, every possible marker of health. And every little bit helps, as long as you do keep doing at least a little bit, every day.

    Don't let yourself be discouraged by anyone who tells you that you could be doing more, or better, or different. The exercise you DO is better than the exercise you could do, but won't. And with that, I'm gonna go climb some stairs!



    ^^^^^^ That, because you started, now just keep going and build on that. a person in motion---stays in motion:)

Categories