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Stair climbing gets the heart pumping quickly, as anyone who’s ever skipped the elevator or escalator knows. That makes it an excellent low-impact exercise that’s as accessible as walking, since stairs are everywhere, but it burns many more calories. Even short bouts come with powerful health benefits, including improved , and a .
The movement is simple, but intense because stair climbing forces you to work against gravity as you repeatedly propel your body up a small height, doctors say. Yes, even competitive athletes use stair climbing as a part of their fitness training. “You’re working your heart, which is the most important muscle of the body, but then you’re also working your legs and you’re building muscles,” Dr.
Carrie Jaworski, a sports medicine physician in Park City, Utah, and president-elect of the American College of Sports Medicine, tells TODAY.com. “It’s a great workout.
” “It’s excellent cardio,” adds Dr. Stuart Cherney, chief of sports medicine at Stony Brook Medicine in New York. “It also incorporates a lot of muscle groups, which is going to require more work and burn off more calories.
” Stair climbing works the quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and gluteal muscles, he notes. It depends on how fast you’re going, but it can be significantly more than — up to four times more, Jaworski says. “Stair climbing is one of the easiest activities you can do to burn calories without going to a gym,” the notes.
For a 155-pound person, running up stairs for an hour would burn more than 1,050 calories; while walking up stairs would burn about 560 calories, according to the . By comparison, walking on a flat surface at a moderate pace burns 246 calories per hour. Most people can’t sustain walking up stairs at any pace for a long period, but since this exercise burns so much energy, “it’s very effective” even as a short workout, Jaworski says.
“You can get more bang for your buck” compared to walking, she adds. Climbing stairs is associated with a longer life, at a congress of the European Society of Cardiology in 2024. After analyzing nine studies with more than 480,000 participants, they found people who regularly climbed stairs had a 24% reduced risk of dying prematurely from any cause and a 39% lower likelihood of dying from heart disease, compared to people who skipped stairs.
Climbing stairs was also linked with a lower risk of heart attack, heart failure and stroke. “If you have the choice of taking the stairs or the lift, go for the stairs as it will help your heart,” said study author Dr. Sophie Paddock of the University of East Anglia, in a statement.
“Short bouts of stair climbing should be an achievable target to integrate into daily routines.” Regular stair climbing can lead to fat loss, and improve blood pressure, cholesterol levels and insulin sensitivity, in 2023. Climbing six to 10 flights of stairs per day — assuming 10 steps per flight — is associated with a lower risk of dying prematurely, a found.
It’s also linked with a 20% lower risk of heart disease, separate noted. Even a few minutes of stair climbing throughout the day can improve heart health, a found. The findings are based on people who “vigorously” climbed three flights of stairs, three times per day.
Doing this routine three times a week “on your coffee or bathroom break during the day seems to be enough to boost fitness in people who are otherwise sedentary,” said study co-author Jonathan Little, professor at the University of British Columbia, in a statement. Being able to climb four flights of stairs at a fast pace — in under a minute — without having to stop is a sign you have good exercise capacity and a lower chance of dying prematurely, has found. It appears it’s possible to sculpt the abdominal muscles with stair climbing.
In 2022, fitness influencer Camilla Akbas said using a stair climbing machine while keeping her hands off the handlebar gave her abs in eight weeks. It can work because by not using your hands for balance, the exercise requires you to use all your core muscles to stabilize yourself, Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, .
He compared it to “basically doing a 25-minute plank.” Climbing a real set of stairs requires more effort than a at the gym since the rolling stairs or pedals on a machine force you to move and give you a bit of an assist, Jaworski says. “The actual real stairs are going to give you a little bit of a harder workout,” she notes.
“You’re going to feel it more quickly than you would on a machine.” Real stairs also allow for more workout variations rather than just climbing in one direction on a machine, Cherney adds. But a stepper machine is still a good workout, the experts note.
The experts have different opinions. Some say no since going down the stairs can be harder on the knees and "the climbing component that really is what is going to give you the most benefit," Jaworski says. Others say yes because the leg muscles are still working, though in a different manner, Cherney says.
But the cardio is less intense because you're working with gravity. Always check with your doctor before starting a new exercise routine. People with balance issues or knees that ache when walking up stairs might need to find another option, doctors caution.
While stair climbing, always monitor your heart rate because the "pulse can skyrocket" quickly, Cherney cautions. Start with five minutes and increase that time by five minutes every week, he advises. Many people aim to work up to 30 minutes.
Some like to incorporate shorter intervals into circuit training — lifting weights, then hopping onto the machine for a few minutes, then returning to weights, for example. Your posture on the machine is important — don’t slouch over because that can aggravate lower back problems, Cherney notes. There's a bit of a learning curve, so have a trainer show you how to best use it.
Start by climbing one or two flights a day, then begin adding more, Jaworski says. If you have access to a tall building with lots of stairs, go up for as many flights as you can — until you get out of breath or your legs get tired — then go back down and try again if you have the energy, she adds. You might eventually try a , but you don't have to go fast.
Start at your own pace — the benefits come from doing the work, not the speed, Jaworski notes. Increase the pace only if you want a more intense workout. Some people might use a weighted backpack or vest to make it even more challenging.
To lessen your risk of falling, use the handrails and lean a bit forward. Climbing stairs doesn’t need to be one long workout — you can get the same benefits if you do several shorter stair climbing bouts spaced hours apart, both experts emphasize. “Your body really doesn’t know whether it’s all done at one time or whether it’s spread out over the day,” Cherney says.
Always take stairs over the elevator or escalator to build activity into your day, Jaworski adds. “You can use (stair climbing) for a workout, absolutely, but you should also use it as a lifestyle choice and take those stairs whenever you have the chance,” she says. A.
Pawlowski is a TODAY health reporter focusing on health news and features. Previously, she was a writer, producer and editor at CNN..
