In a world where time is often as precious a commodity as money, fitting in exercise is not always easy. However, you likely have a piece of exercise equipment nearby: a flight of stairs. Clubs of stair climbers have even popped up across the country, scaling the floors of tall buildings to boost cardiovascular capacity and tone muscles, according to “USA Today.” Even climbing the stairs several times per day for 15 minutes can offer benefits. Consult with your physician before beginning a stair climbing exercise program to ensure you are healthy enough.

Burns Calories

Stair climbing is an intense exercise that helps your body burn calories. If you can burn more calories than you take in throughout the day, you will lose weight. A 160-pound person who climbs a stair treadmill, or stairmill, an exercise machine that simulates stair climbing, burns 657 calories per hour, according to A 150-pound person can burn 7 calories per minute when climbing at a moderate intensity, according to Dr. Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise in a “New York Times” interview.

Muscle Toning

Stair climbing provides a vertical incline, which can challenge your muscles, according to Dr. Bryant. The climbing motion helps tone your glute muscles and your quadriceps, according to the American Council on Exercise. The secondary muscles worked include your calf and hamstrings muscles. These toning benefits increase your muscle mass, which can improve the appearance of your legs.

Health Benefits Study

Stair climbing’s convenience benefits were examined in a study from The University of Ulster, The Queen’s University of Belfast and the University of Wolverhampton published in the April 2000 edition of “Preventive Medicine.” Sedentary participants were separated into two groups. The first was to maintain their lifestyle and the second was to engage in a seven-week stair-climbing program. Each week, the group would climb one additional flight of stairs in a public building of their choice. After seven weeks, the stair-climbing group climbed an average of 13.5 minutes per day. Researchers found the active group experienced reduced heart rate, improved oxygen uptake and had increased their high-density lipoprotein, or “good” cholesterol, numbers.


While climbing stairs is a lower impact workout than running, according to the “New York Times,” going back down the stairs can increase the impact on the body twice as much as climbing up. If you have knee and/or foot issues, you may wish to climb the stairs up and take the elevator back down to avoid further damage to your body while reaping the benefits of stair climbing. Another option is to simply use a stairmill because you only climb up the stairs.

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