We all thrive off the challenge. It’s part of the human condition. When it comes to meeting our fitness and weight loss goals, a challenge can get us motivated and focused. There are all sorts of fitness challenges out there but few of them are as effective as the 30 Day Stair Climbing Challenge.
Successfully knocking it off will ramp up your fitness level, increase your muscle mass, help you lose weight, and improve your cardiovascular fitness. Here are 8 reasons why you should take on the 30 Say Stair Climbing Challenge.
How the Challenge Works
The 30 -Day Stair Climbing Challenge involves climbing stairs for 30 consecutive days. According to the 30-Day Stair Climbing Challenge rules, you can use either a stepping machine or actual stairs. You cannot hold the side rails but you are able to hold light dumbbells in your hands. You should maintain an upright body position while climbing and not pause during the session.
Each day you increase the length of time that you are stair climbing. On Day One, you do 5 minutes of exercise. You then add two minutes per day, with periodic larger jumps. On the last day, you will be stair climbing for 45 minutes.
Now, let’s get to the benefits of taking on this challenge.
Weight Loss
Stair climbing is an effective calorie-burning exercise. You will burn between 60 and 100 calories every 15 minutes that you spend climbing stairs. Combining your daily stair-climbing workout with a reduced-calorie diet will help you to maintain a daily calorie deficit so that your body will be forced to burn stored body fat for energy.
Muscle Building
Stair climbing targets your glutes, quadriceps, and calf muscles. During a normal stair climbing session, you will be moving those muscles through their full range of motion thousands of times. Each step you take loads a resistance against those muscles. While you don’t get the type of progressive resistance that comes from free weight training, climbing stairs will increase muscular endurance. This increases the sarcoplasmic liquid in the muscle cell, making that muscle larger.
Strength Increase
Climbing stairs will increase the strength of your lower body. The largest muscle on your body is your gluteus maximus or butt muscles. Yet, due to our sedentary lifestyle, many people’s glutes are severely under strength. Stair climbing is one of the best things you can do to strengthen the glutes.
Stair climbing will also increase the strength of your core muscles.
Heart Health
Climbing stairs will improve your heart health. It will force your heart to pump harder to move the blood around your body. The stronger your heart, the more ably you will be able to function when your body is under stress. It will also greatly reduce your markers for cardiovascular disease. It will lower your blood pressure, reduce your LDL cholesterol levels and improve the capacity of your lungs.
Improve Mental Health
When you spend each day doing several minutes of stair climbing you will be improving more than your physical health; you will also boost your mental health. The very fact that you are taking on a challenge to improve your body will make you feel positive about yourself. You’ll also be producing the feel-good hormones that will put you in a good mood. And once you achieve the challenge and see the good results that have come from it your self-esteem will be greatly boosted.
Improved Posture and Reduced Back Pain
When you are climbing stairs you are being encouraged to maintain an upright body posture. At the same time, you are making your glutes and core – especially the erector spinae at the base of your spine, stronger. The combined effect is that your posture will improve and your lower back pain will be lessened.
Brain Boost
Climbing up and down stairs can actually make us smarter. There is some research that suggests that people who walk up and downstairs as part of a daily exercise plan have a better level of concentration, focus, cognitive flexibility, and memory. Walking downstairs has been shown to be especially beneficial when it comes to getting smarter, as it requires more mental dexterity and coordination between the mind and the body.
Versatility
Stair climbing is one of the most versatile forms of cardio exercise that exist. You can do it at the gym in the cardio room or at home with your own stair climber. But if you don’t have access to those things, you can find stairs all over your community, making it a free form of exercise.
Many fantastic walking trails include steps, allowing your to enjoy nature while getting a great workout. You can even use the stairs in your apartment building. If you have a house with stairs, you will be able to get a great workout without leaving home.
You can also mix up your stair climbing with other forms of exercise. For example, you can combine burpees stair climbing, and jumping jacks for an awesome and intense cardio workout. Holding dumbbells in your hands while you are climbing the stairs will also boost your muscle and strength potential.
Conclusion
You now know why taking on the 30 Day Stair Climbing Challenge is a great idea. All that remains is to actually take on the challenge yourself. So, set a start date and get climbing – your body will thank you for it!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is stair climbing bad for the knees?
No, stair climbing is not bad for the knees. However, if you have a pre-existing knee condition, you may experience some pain when you climb the stairs. In this case, you may wish to choose a less impactful form of cardio exercise. I recommend that you consult with your doctor if this is the case for you.
In order to minimize knee impact when you are climbing the stairs, you should avoid taking the stairs two at a time. Maintain an upright body position while you are exercising on the stairs. If you feel any knee discomfort you should stop immediately.
