Stair Mastery

By Andrew Heffernan / January - February 2011: Change Your Life

You hear it so often that it barely registers anymore: Take the stairs. But if you want to stay in shape, burn some calories and get the blood flowing, scampering up a few flights really is one of the best things you can do. It’s a fitness tool that’s readily available and free of charge in places where convenient exercise options are often limited, like high-rise hotels, office buildings — or your very own house.

Nobody knows the stairs better than Virgil Aponte, a former strength and conditioning coach of the WNBA’s New York Liberty, who has made stair climbing into something of a fitness art. “Stairs are as viable a fitness tool as a gym or track,” he says. “With some creativity, you can use them to build endurance, strength, power, flexibility or to meet virtually any other fitness goal.”

Known in fitness circles as “The Stair Guru,” Aponte discovered the effectiveness of stair training in 1998 after recovering from an injury; he went on to use them when building renovations forced the Liberty out of the well-equipped training facility they shared with the New York Knicks. Frustrated, he brought his athletes to a stairwell in a local high-rise and improvised a stair-based workout that flattened even his fittest athletes. For the rest of the season, Aponte had team members sprint, jump and hop up staircases as a regular part of their conditioning regimen. Under Aponte’s tutelage, the gym-deprived but exceptionally well-conditioned Liberty ended the ’99 season as WNBA Eastern Conference champs.

“I’ve found that stair climbing actually has some advantages over running,” says Aponte. “It’s more challenging because you’re lifting your body weight against gravity. But it’s also lower impact because your weight doesn’t come crashing down onto your front foot with each step as it does when you run. You just lift up your foot and the stair is there, at the top point in your stride.”

As with any form of exercise, steer clear of stair climbing if it causes you joint pain during or after exercise. And because of the danger of falling, stair workouts aren’t a great idea for people who have trouble balancing or are just getting back into fitness after a long layoff.

These exceptions aside, Aponte says that stair workouts are scalable to suit a wide variety of fitness levels: “If you’re out of shape, you can give yourself a boost using the railings or just take it slow.” Athletic types, on the other hand, can try skipping steps, jumping up stairs on two feet, wearing a weighted vest or sprinting as fast as possible.

Though most people outside of big cities don’t have easy access to 20 stories or more, it’s possible to put together a great stair workout with far less: “Look at all the creative things people do in step aerobics classes,” he notes, “and that’s just one step!”

With that in mind, Aponte has designed three different stair workouts especially for Experience Life readers: one for sea-level folks with access to just a couple of flights (next page), another for city-dwellers and travelers who frequent high-rises, and one for the stair machine. (See the online version of this article at experiencelife.com for the latter two.) Give one of these options a try, and next time you’re looking for a fitness challenge, remember: There’s always one waiting for you behind the door marked “Stairs.”

The 30-Minute Challenge

Aponte designed the stair-and-jump-rope workout below for those with a limited number of stair flights available — whether at home, or an office, a gym or a hotel.

Since serious stair climbing is new to most people, Aponte suggests you use the warm-up portion of the workout to test your climbing mettle. If you’re huffing and puffing after those six flights, it’s best to stick to that for your first few outings, or take the rest of this workout at a slow and steady pace. See Exercise Key below for instructions.

Walk
Walk up the stairs, one or two at a time. If your front knee caves inward when you try to ascend two steps at a time, drop back to one at a time.

Run
Pick up your pace, ascending at a quick but careful clip. Use handrails if necessary.

Jump Rope
Jump at a steady pace that you can maintain for the allotted time.

Reverse Crossover Lunges
• Stand at the top of the stairs with your back to the steps.
• Holding the handrails, step backward and two steps down with your left foot, crossing it behind and about 12 inches to the right of your right foot.
• Using the handrails for assistance, gradually lower yourself into a lunge, keeping your torso upright and your right knee in line with your right foot.
• Ease your weight backward onto your left foot, and step your right foot down alongside your left.
• Step backward with your right foot and repeat, alternating feet as you descend the stairs.

Crossover Lunges
• Holding one or both handrails for assistance, place your right foot up two steps, crossing the right foot in front of and, if possible, to the left of, your left foot.
• Lunge deeply forward, keeping your torso upright, taking care to keep your right knee in line with your right foot.
• Pushing through your right heel, pull yourself up with the handrails, and step your left foot up alongside your right.
• Step forward with your left foot and repeat, alternating feet as you ascend the stairs

Alternating Lunges
• Stand upright with your feet together and your hands on your hips.
• Step your left foot forward, placing it on the floor about two or three feet in front of you, toes pointing directly forward.
• Keeping your left knee in line with the toes of your left foot and your torso upright, lower yourself slowly into a lunge position, stopping when your right knee is a few inches from the floor.
• Press down through the heel of your left foot and return to the starting position.
• Repeat the movement with your right foot.

Skaters
• As you ascend the stairs, bound side to side as far as you can toward the outside edge of each step, landing on the right foot as you bound to the right and the left foot as you bound to the left. Your movement should resemble that of a speed skater shifting rapidly from one foot to the other.
• Advanced stair climbers can try doing skaters two steps at a time.

Plank Hold
• Perform a standard front plank on your elbows and toes, keeping your back straight and your head and neck in line with your spine.

Pushups
• Perform at medium tempo, keeping your body straight and head aligned with your spine.
• To make it easier, perform the exercise with your hands on the stairs.
• To make it more challenging, elevate your feet instead.

Squats
• Stand with feet hip-width apart, toes pointed slightly outward.
• Keeping your eyes level and your lower back in its natural arch, push your hips backward until your thighs are parallel to the floor or slightly below, or until your heels can’t remain flat on the floor.
• Push down through your heels and return to the starting position.

Round 1: Warm-Up

Ascent:
Walk up two flights – Go at an easy pace, one stair at a time, using the railings if you wish. “Everyone from beginners to pro athletes needs to warm up on the stairs,” says Aponte. This prevents injury and patterns the stair-climbing movement into the nervous system.

Descent:
Reverse Crossover Lunge – “I learned this movement from a ballerina,” Aponte explains. “Before or after exercise, it’s a great way to stretch the piriformis [pear-shaped muscle in the back of the hip that tends to tighten in almost everyone]. Crossovers help to undo some of the stiffness in the hips that comes from sitting a lot.”

Repeat ascent and descent a total of three times.

Jump rope one minute, then rest 30 seconds.

Round 2: Circuits

In this round and the one that follows, you will go up and down the staircase a total of five times, each time in a slightly different manner, performing a body-weight drill at the bottom of the stairs between each climb. This combination of strength-training exercises with stair climbing builds a highly functional combination of both strength and endurance.

Round 3: Running Circuits

In this round, ascend the steps as fast as you (safely) can, descend by walking (or using the reverse crossover lunge, if you prefer), and perform the body-weight exercises specified between climbs. Rest for one minute between each of the five sets.

Andrew Heffernan, CSCS, is a Los Angeles-based trainer. He blogs at www.malepatternfitness.com.

Andrew Heffernan, CSCS, is a Los Angeles-based trainer. He blogs at www.malepatternfitness.com.