Is climbing stairs a better exercise than walking?

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Climbing Stairs
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 Walking is the simplest and most cost-free exercise in the galaxy to have so many benefits!

It can not only strengthen your muscles and help you lose weight but it can also improve your mood and help you live longer!

You can walk around the neighbourhood, around the house, or even on a treadmill in a small corner of the gym or house. Just walk briskly every day. Walking every day keeps the extra weight at bay! 

But even if you don’t have any inclination to lose weight, you should make walking a consistent habit because it can also improve your day and open up the creative realms in your brain. Apart from this, walking can tone up your muscles, strengthen your heart and amplify your energy levels. Anybody can do it at any time. How incredible is that?

What if there is another unique alternative that is as powerful and impactful as walking? Free of cost too!

Here enters the activity of stair climbing. 

Climbing Stairs

Multiple statements from doctors and researchers have spoken highly of stair climbing as much as they have spoken about walking. Stair climbing has proved to deliver the same benefits but more rapidly. This is because there is more physical assertion involved in it. It can also be seen as a  more powerful version of walking because walking happens on a horizontal plane while stair climbing happens on an inclined plane. And by the laws of physics, more effort is needed to move up an inclined plane than that is needed to move on a horizontal plane. More effort equates to more energy spent which in turn equates to quicker results.

 

Studies have also shown that the lower back and core muscles are also involved in stair climbing along with the lower body muscles. Moreover, stair climbing with different interval training is part of the cross-exercise regimes in many gyms and body-building institutions. It offers a great lower body workout and it also forms a great indoor exercise. People who have climbed stairs every day, for a certain period of time, have seen tremendous progress in terms of inches lost and weight loss. 

Stair Climbing and Heart Health

Climbing stairs is excellent for your cardiovascular health. It provides benefits that are quite significant. Several studies show that high-intensity interval stair climbing improves cardiorespiratory fitness and recommend it in cardiac rehabilitation programs.

Stair climbing is associated with healthier lipoprotein profiles, lower body weight, and blood pressure, as well as higher aerobic fitness. Several research findings show that daily stair climbing may be protective against metabolic syndrome.

Although running beats both stair climbing and walking by a great notch, stair climbing exercise is definitely a starter for someone looking for variety in their workout list. So, the next time you try out stair climbing be proud of the fact that you are burning twice the number of calories rapidly as you would have burnt with walking. 

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