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Stair Training - a simple exercise of going up and down stairs.
Anyone who has watched Rocky knows of the iconic scene where Rocky climbs 72 stone steps before the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A feat of strength and endurance. Many youtube videos show athletes conquering the stairs at their local stadium. But is there any purpose to running stairs or are they just for show?

For many runners, training involves long runs, tempo runs, speed work, hill work and sometimes strength in the gym. But should runners look to incorporate stair training into their routine? From my personal experience, yes!
Stair training is great for runners and walkers alike, due to its cardiovascular and muscle toning benefits.

What are the benefits?
With stair climbing, a higher demand is placed on the body, meaning your muscles are forced to work harder, to resist gravity.
Your glutes and thigh muscles are actively engaged, which will increase stability and balance.
Some studies have shown that you burn twice the amount of fat than when running.
Muscle and tendon strengthening
Lower impact than normal running
Taking 2-3 stairs at a time, you engage your abdominal muscles since you have to lift your legs higher than usual.
Going down the stairs helps your quadriceps and hip flexors

My personal experience with stairs
I decided to start doing stair training after my program ended and cross country season was finished. I have been struggling with calf injuries and with the Harrismith mountain race coming up, I needed to do some training to improve cardiovascular and leg strength. So instead of Tuesday Hills, I started doing Tuesday Westcliff Stairs. These stairs are quite popular among runners, hikers and non-athletes.
The first time I did the stairs I had parked at zoo lake and it felt like such a long run to the stairs. I had planned 10 x 1 minutes, which for me was the first section of the stairs. After doing the first one I thought there is no ways I could do 10, so I settled on 5 (also I did not want to hurt my calves more). Super happy when I was finished, but overall including warm up and cool down it was 4.55km. Each minute was 100m and 19m elevation.

I went again 2 weeks later and decided to do the top section of stairs, which was a quicker set. I did 10, starting at 37 seconds, with my last one 30 seconds - this for only 40m. My whole session took 33:42 for 2.67km.

The next week I did 3 full sets of stairs, which measured 210m with a bit of an uphill break between the 2 sets of stairs. They took me on average 2:31 and after dying up the stairs the first time I knew the next 2 were going to be hard. This session took 31:07 for 2.86km.

My last session I already noticed improvement - I did 6 of the top section stairs again and averaged 31 seconds for the 40m. I felt my form was better (I wasnt as hunched as the other times), my leg lift was good and overall I felt strong.

The most discouraging thing about stairs is the distance for the amount of effort. When I stop my watch and see I havent even done 3km I feel about like I should go do more but then my recovery advisory gives me 19 hours. For most runners this distance is just a waste of time, so it has been a bit of a mind shift of quality over quantity.

How have these stairs helped my calf injury? You would think that stair training would aggravate my calf, but I have been finding that as the weeks go on that this isnt the case. The first week was hard, I push off with and use my calves a lot and stairs have been forcing my to use my glutes and thighs more. The second time around with the fast stairs, both calves were extremely stiff the next day or 2 but they came right. After that I havent actually felt them on the stairs at all - I can feel my thighs burning, which is what I am going after. I have seen significant improvement in my calves from when I first started to now.

Stairs are quite easy to find - you dont need a super long staircase either. Westcliff Stairs are free and easily accessible. A lot of sports fields have stairs in the stadium or leading in to the stadium. Office blocks also have stairs. You also dont need to kill yourself by doing hours of stairs, remember to start slow and build up - quality over quantity.

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