Want to improve your speed, turnover rate, vertical jump, VO2 Max, and more without too much time or effort. Time to embrace the benefits of running stairs
Stairs can help runners improve endurance, race times, and build strength, and a few benefits.
It’s a classic workout with huge rewards.
What Does Running Stairs Do For Your Body?
Running stairs offers a number of physical and health benefits.
THE TOP BENEFITS OF STAIR RUNNING
Improves Strength and Power
Stair running is a plyometric exercise that forces the muscles to exert their maximum force in climbing movement, causing them to extend and contract quickly or explosively.
Running up a flight of stairs forces us to work against gravity, enhancing our strength and power. As a plyometric movement, it builds speed, agility, vertical jump, and strength.
Improves VO2 Max
When we run stairs, our heart rate increases rapidly, causing us to breathe faster in order to take in more oxygen.
As a result, our VO2max, or the maximum amount of oxygen we can use during intense exercise, improves.
Increases Cardiovascular Fitness
Climbing stairs for 30 minutes every week in short bursts, not only increased cardiorespiratory fitness, but also improved longevity.
The best thing about running stairs is that it can improve cardiorespiratory fitness even in short bursts.
Helps Lower Blood Sugar Levels
Stair running has also been shown to lower blood sugar levels. Walking up and down stairs for 3 minutes 60 to 180 minutes after a meal reduced blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes, or other health issues.
OTHER BENEFITS
Aside from improving fitness levels and reducing blood sugar levels, running stairs targets some of the largest muscles in the body, including the glutes, quads, and calves, the same muscles used for lunges and squats. Stairs also are much steeper than most hills, so running stairs will make climbing hills easier.
Other benefits of stair climbing include:
Improves running cadence
Can burn 1,000 calories per hour
Engages the brain
Increased range of motion in hip muscles
Why is Climbing Stairs Harder Than Running?
The intensity level is immediately higher, engaging all of our major lower body muscles which tells the heart and brain that we’re working harder.
Unlike running on a flat road, we’re being asked to not just carry our weight forward with some momentum, but to push it upwards.
RUNNING STAIRS VS RUNNING HILLS
Since stairs are generally much steeper than hills, they will make hill climbing easier. This is a great option for trail runners.
Both hill running and stair running build speed, power, and strength, however, they do use different muscles.
Sticking to hills uses the same muscles used for running on flat surfaces, while stair running puts more emphasis on the quads, calves, and glutes.
Both hills and stairs work stabilizing muscles crucial for avoiding injuries and maintaining balance.
How Often Should You Run Stairs?
In any endurance running plan, the goal is 80/20 of easy to hard days. So we need our stair workouts to be a small part of our total training to ensure we are also doing speed workouts and long runs.
Even a 5-minute stair workout twice a week is going to provide great muscles strength.
For runners who are not running many kilometres, then they should add in up to 3 stair workouts a week instead of adding kilometres.
Warm Up
As with any workout, we should begin with a warm up by going for an easy 1km jog. Then do a set of speed workout agility moves, like butt kickers, high knees, carioca, and strides.
We should take care going down the stairs if we have a knee injury, as going down is more impact than going up. We can go down at a side angle to mitigate any pain.
BASIC STAIR RUNNING WORKOUT
Look for a staircase with at least 10-30 steps, you should look for something that will take you about 10-20 seconds.
Sprint to the top of the stairs, then jog or walk back down.
Repeat 5 times, resting for about 10 seconds in between each set.
Perform 3 to 5 rounds, with a 1 minute break in between.
Focus On Performing Some Good Stair Running And Climbing, Feel Some Stronger, Better Legs And Glutes Muscles, Running Up Stairs Workouts Weekly Will Support Better, Stronger And More Comfortable Road And Trail Runs!
Enjoy!
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