Stairs

Jessica finds immense joy climbing stairs, anyway, anywhere, all the time, seeking out stairways everywhere. As a trainer she encourages all her clients to take the stairs or the hills in San Francisco to increases leg power, help achieve a healthy body weight and build healthy muscles, bones, and joints. Most commonly noted for its booty-shaping benefits, taking the stairs is actually a complete body strength workout. It's an effective form of cardio training allowing you to do more for your heart health and a way to work toward weight loss goals. 

When climbing stairs you work through range of motion at the hip and knee which can benefit your butt (gluteal) muscles, as well as the quadriceps, and hamstrings. The activity doesn’t just work the lower body. If you stay upright while walking the stairs and don’t use your arms for support, your core will engage in order to keep you stabilized! Studies have shown that stair climbing significantly improves the volume of oxygen your body can use while exercising.

Choosing to take the stairs is also easy on the joints. When compared to other cardio exercises such as running or HIIT, stair climbing is considered to be relatively low-impact. This means that it does not exert as much force on your ankles, knees, and hips. Even though stair climbing is low impact, it is still a weight-bearing exercise, so you get the benefit of supporting healthy bone density.

Why not go for it? Join Jessica and take the stairs challenge!