Climbing Stairs - Why do they NEVER get any easier? (muscles, lifting)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
By stairs, I mean real stairs and not the Stairmaster.
I've noticed that with nearly every other exercise - running, bicycling, weight training, tae bo, swimming, what-have-you... the first time I start with any of these after a long break off, I can feel myself struggling to finish the workout or keep up, but with consistent practice, I can definitely feel it getting easier. I got back into the gym 3 weeks ago after a few months off and already I have to increase my workouts because I'm already getting used to it.
But for some reason with stairs, they NEVER get any easier. I live in NYC, so I climb stairs all day, every day. It is unavoidable. But for some reason, I am just as winded climbing 6 flights out of the subway as I was a year ago when I moved here. Even climbing the 2 flights up to my apartment, I can feel a strong burn and my heart is racing just as much as it ever was.
Does anyone else notice this with stairs? They never seem to get easier, while every other physical exercise does.
I started incorporating outside stairs last night into my training. I am lucky to have lengthy flights of stairs around a lake I run around. Each stairwell has 150+ stairs, some 250. So they are LONG. When I feel good, I will do 20 flights of these stairs with breaks in between each stairwell.
They have gotten much easier for me but I run 40-50 miles a week and day hike 16 miles on Saturday and Sundays.
You say your heart races when you go up two flights of stairs. I think this is normal. You can't run up stairs (no matter how cardio fit you are) and not have an elevated heart rate.
Deecbee, it sounds as if you're saying you don't climb stairs for a workout, but just walk up a flight or two here and there as you move about through the day. Is that correct? If so, the reason they never seem to get any easier is that you're usually doing about the same amount of stair-climbing all the time. You've never done any progressive overloading to increase your conditioning (for climbing stairs at least--conditioning can have very specific effects, so other exercise likely won't get you in shape for climbing stairs as well as stair-climbing will). Your body just kind of stays in the minimal shape it needs to be in for climbing a couple of flights of stairs at a time. If you were to start working out by climbing stairs, doing many round trips up and down and increasing the number of trips over time, you'd most likely find that climbing a couple of flights as you moved through your day would be a piece of cake.
Does anyone else notice this with stairs? They never seem to get easier, while every other physical exercise does.
You're far from alone. Climbing stairs and running/hiking uphill are frequently described this way. Hiking uphill is my own particular bugaboo; it irks me that I can run 4 miles while conversing with a friend and without breaking a sweat but I huff and puff after a 50-yard hike up a moderate incline. I regularly hike uphill and also weight-train and practice yoga so it's not like any of my muscles are underdeveloped.
I too have looked for answers and most of them seem to point to the notion that stairs and uphills necessitate intense, rapid, repetitive, sustained vertical lifting of one's own body weight. Long story short, we're simply not evolved or engineered to rapidly ascend inclined planes. Early humans had no use for such activities.
That's because you are going against the force of gravity. Gravity is the resistance and your body is fighting this resistance as you climb higher. When climbing down stairs it is effortless because you aren't fighting the force of gravity but going along with it.
I have noticed that but I think it has gotten a little easier though not so you'd notice really. It's just that before I couldn't do it or would have to stop and now I am up and down all day. (I work at a big school and am always moving from one classroom to another and up and down the steps quite a lot.)
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
