Walking up and down the stairs is great exercise and burns calories. You can burn about 300 calories for 30 minutes of walking the stairs depending on the intensity of your workout. But, beware, 30 minutes is a lot of time to spend walking up and down stairs. It is hard work.
I used to take an exercise class where the instructor would have us walk up and down about 10 flights of stairs. Everyone was exhausted by the time we were finished.
The advantages of walking the stairs? They are many:
- You can walk the stairs anywhere there are stairs – offices, homes, stores
- We all know how to do it, no special training is needed
- No special equipment is needed, though if you are going to walk up multiple flights as exercise you need good shoes. I used to walk the stairs at work in high heels, but it was only for a floor or two. I had some scary moments, especially going down stairs where I almost catapulted myself over the edge a few times.
- You can do this exercise in short spurts. If you only have time to run a report up to a colleague two floors up from you that still counts as exercise even if you do not take the stairs again for another couple of hours.
- Stair climbing will exercise your legs particularly your quadriceps (front of the thighs) and your butt.
- Your heart will get a good workout
- It is low impact and safe for your knee joints
