What People Don’t Know About Stair Stepper Workouts

Often overlooked and cast aside for cycling, treadmills, and ellipticals it’s a shame that aerobic steps, step machines, and stair mills are ignored by many at the gym. 

Every cardio exercise exists for its own reasons and stepping routines and step workouts have their own unique balance of boons that should get more people converting from treadmills and cycles and move toward stepping up the stairway to a heavenly body.

So what is it that makes stepper workouts so special or a valid choice compared to your other cardio options? 

It comes down to the unique balance of characteristics and high variability in how it can be performed that lends itself to being a flexible and powerful exercise for boosting overall health and fitness. 

Unparalleled Cardio Benefits With a Step Workout

First of all, a one-hour workout on an aerobic step platform or step machine at the gym can offer the same cardiovascular health benefits for the lungs and heart as a 7-mile sprint.

And yes, that was a sprint – as in running 7 miles at your fastest speed. 

This should put into context the efficiency and potential high intensity available in stair stepper exercises. 

By pushing yourself through a high-intensity workout you can increase your cardiovascular efficiency by improving how well your lungs absorb oxygen from the air, how strong your heart can beat and how well your blood circulates delivering energy to muscles and removing waste products. 

This will improve your energy throughout the day, allowing you to perform other cardio exercises even better, and improves the rate at which your muscles recover after a hard workout.

Improved Musculoskeletal Health

Stair stepper machine workouts are also excellent for improving your musculoskeletal health! In order to increase the strength and density of your bones and their connective tissues, it is advised that a certain amount of high-impact exercise be done. 

Stair climbing is wonderful for this as it is a very high impact if performed in a high-intensity interval training method where the exerciser will practice using short durations of high-intensity exercise. 

Since Stair climbing is high-impact, it’s especially good for bone and joint health if it is performed at a pace where there are times where you have neither of your feet planted on the ground. 

Stair climbing also benefits from having decent calorie-burning workouts even if you don’t plan on going all out with high impact which may be important for those with bone and joint conditions that would advise against high-impact workouts. 

To enjoy a nice medium or low impact workout you just simply need to be mindful of always having one foot on the ground.

Builds Muscle

Another huge bonus for stair climbing equipment over other cardio options is that it is also partially a muscle-building exercise more than most other forms of cardio. 

The muscle groups engaged include the entirety of the legs as well as muscles throughout your pelvis and core that help you keep upright and balanced and steady while running up and down the stairs. This wide engagement is great for toning and shaping your legs and glutes.

 Stair climbing builds more muscle than other cardio workouts since it involves the repeated lifting of your body which is more intensive for the muscles than keeping level on a treadmill. 

But you could gain some benefits on a treadmill that has adjustable elevation but they can never really compare to the steep climbing angle of stair stepper machines.

An All-around Excellent Exercise

So stair steppers can be invaluable tools for high-intensity interval training with their efficient calorie-burning combination of weight lifting and cardiovascular health they make for one of the most efficient ways to shed pounds to top it all off. 

Of course, when training to lose weight and get in shape it is advisable to mix it up and keep your workouts interesting to keep you from burning out, that’s why an aerobic stepper platform is so wonderful for getting into working out as it offers a huge variety of step patterns and difficulties to scale your workout to your fitness level. 

But if your focus is entirely on maximizing your High-Intensity Interval Training workout then you should consider a stair mill that will allow you to push yourself to the limit with handholds built into the machine such as the Stairmaster 8 Gauntlet to keep you safe from dangerously falling from a misstep or trip while climbing. 

But if you don’t trust your clumsy feet and don’t mind losing some of the benefits of high-impact cardio which can be damaging for individuals suffering from joint problems then there is the elliptical style option that allows you to keep your feet planted while you operate through Stairmaster 8 Freeclimber without any of the risks of tripping.