Stair Stepper Exercise Machine Workout Basics and Advantages

Walk up and down your own staircase about ten times and you will really feel the benefits of a stair stepper, and how it will tone and shape your leg muscles.

I did this only last week as I had been sat at my desk for over four hours and because I have circulation problems anyway, I needed the exercise to give my circulation system a good boost to keep the fluid from my ankles.

I had a DVT in my left leg a few years ago, so I constantly have to consider my cardiovascular needs.

Anyway, when I had finished my stair walking, my legs ached from the top of my thighs to the bottom of my calve muscles. As it turns out, using your staircase as a completely free way to exercise your legs has some real advantages.

• You don't have to leave the house
• It is free to use
• You don't have to worry about other people watching you
• If your house-bound, you have a great piece of exercise equipment right at your finger tips

Before we get into the basics and advantages of exercising on a step machine, I want to give you a few simple exercises you can do on your stair case at home.

This will cost you absolutely nothing and you will be surprized at home much your legs will 'feel the burn' so to speak.

Exercise #1 - Step Ups

Stand at the bottom of your staircase and with your right foot, step up to the first step. Then when that foot is flat, move your left foot up to join it, but DO PUT IT DOWN on the step. Instead just tap your toe on the step, then return it (left foot) back to the start position.

Repeat this about ten times, before repeating with your feet reversed and your exercising your other leg.

To increase the intensity, just walk up to the second, third of fourth steps (depending how much you advance your leg strength and your cardio health) and then aim for twenty 'reps' instead of ten.

Exercise #2 - Staircase Lunges

There are two ways you can do this:

1. Walk up your staircase taking two steps at a time. Unless you live in a block of apartments or a three storey house, you will have to walk back down stairs and start over again to carry on. Repeat this about ten times. Another version of this is to concentrate on one leg at a time - ten reps or two flights of your stair case with your right leg leading. Then repeat for the other leg.
2. The second way is a little less intense and less stressful on your knees, depending if you use the first or second step. You can use either. So with your first leg, place your foot on the (first or second) step and lower your body down until your leading leg is bent as far as you can go without straining yourself. Repeat this about ten or more times, and swap legs and do the same for that leg.

Exercise #3 - Basic Stair Walking

I talked a bit about this in the first paragraph. Honestly, if you walk up and down your stairs until your tired - you will raise your heart rate significantly enough that you will need a glass of water to prevent the bead of sweat running down your face, from your forehead! Repeat this until you can't do any more. OR do a combination of all three exercises for around fifteen minutes.

DO NOT OVER DO IT..!

Please remember that you are on a staircase when doing these exercises and to stop if you feel tired, dizzy or out of breath. You don't want to fall from the top step because you got carried away!

Firstly your upper thigh muscles (quadriceps) feel the movement. Go do this on your stair case and you will feel it yourself. The job of the quads is to extend the leg out straight at the knee.

Try this: Stand on one leg (not on the stairs of course) and hold on to something, even lean against a wall for balance. Try squatting up and down a few times with your leg and you will work this muscle group. Can you feel it? (One legged squats are great for adding strength and definition to your quads to).

The next group of muscles to be worked by a stair stepper is your hamstrings, or leg biceps as they are also known. These work by bending the knee, working in opposition to the quadriceps.

Try this: (You can even do this without getting out of you chair right now) Concentrate first on bending your knee, and you will feel the backs of your legs tighten slightly.

Now try this. Concentrate on your hamstrings and really squeeze them really tightly, (its probably better to do this one standing again on one leg and lift the other) bringing your calve up as far as you can to meet your hamstring. Repeat a couple of times. Do you feel the backs of your legs aching, or even burning?

Another way to feel this action, and one I use often in the gym with a dumbbell in each arm, is to stand straight legged and bend at the waist. Keeping your legs straight, you will feel your hamstrings stretch (don't over stretch them if you are not that supple) and then really squeeze them so the tension brings your position back to straight.

Your Buttocks are also worked with the Stair Stepper

This muscle group is called the gluteus maximus or glutes. Their job is to roll your hips back and forth, while you are flexing the quadriceps and the hamstrings. Again, you can feel this with the bent over row which I described above (refer to hamstrings).

Try this: Again with your back starting at the straight position, bend at the waist and on the return of this movement (from bent over, back to straight) squeeze your buttocks and you will feel them tighten more than you usually can just by standing in one upright position.

Ladies, this is a really great way to tighten and define your buttocks!

You probably won't feel them, but your hip flexors are also worked by the stair stepper. They attach your pelvis to your femur in your upper leg.

Your Calves Also Play a Major Role in the Stepping Movement

They lift the heel off the floor.

Try this: Stand on the edge of a step and just using your tip toes, work them by lifting your whole body up and down a few times. This is another great additional way to strengthen and tone your calves.

NOTE: Please do not bend (as in the hamstrings example) if you have back problems, as you may hurt yourself. This also goes for not over stretching them by bending towards the floor. You don't want to injure yourself.

Does a Stair Stepper Burn Fat and How Many Calories Does This Exercise Burn?

As with walking and particularly walking upstairs, the stair stepper will give you a cardiovascular workout, as well as working the muscle groups described above. This means that you will burn fat and calories, equivalent to burning calories. How many calories you burn will depend on a couple of variables, which you can find more about on our stair stepper fitness website.

Your age, weight and length of time you exercise for will define how many calories you burn. As a general rule for life, you will burn calories and thus lose weight (whilst eating a healthy diet) with any type of exercise you perform.

Just walking to the local shop instead of hopping in the car is one great step you can take to lose weight, it saves you money to. Maybe enough to afford a top brand home fitness machine!

What is the Difference Between a Stair Stepper and an Elliptical Cross Trainer?

Elliptical trainers and steppers give you an intense cardiovascular workout, it is just a matter of personal preference which you feel more comfortable exercising on. The clear difference between them is that the stair stepper, as we have discussed above, uses a stepping motion mimicking walking up a flight of stairs and the elliptical cross trainer mimics cross-training skiing.

My personal preference is the cross trainer, as I find the upper body movement of using my whole arms an advantage and also I find it easier on the knees because I've had problems with my knees since working out incorrectly when heavy squatting, when I was in my early twenties.

But steppers are a lot kinder to your over all leg structure and movement, because you are not stepping on a hard surface. They normally use some sort of hydraulic system, which gives them a gentle 'bouncy' feeling at the bottom of the movement.