Stairs are a Girls (and Boys) Best Friend!

I'm always looking for ways to tone up my legs and keep strong glutes and hamstring muscles. Stair climbing works all of the muscles in the legs and are great for building strength and endurance. In high school, we would run five to ten laps of stairs at the end of practice. They were killer moves, but my endurance was much better for it. Now that I run and play city league basketball, I'm going back to the stairs.

Stair workouts are easy to do because you can find flights of stairs anywhere. The bleachers at your local track are perfect. You can also do repeats in your own house if you have a flight of stairs. Many gyms have stairways to balcony's or their own indoor bleachers that are perfect. You can even use the stairs at the mall if you need to (though you may want to walk them in the mall rather than run).

Before you start the workout make sure you have built up a running base by consistently running for 2-3 weeks at least three times a week. Start small, walk two laps of stairs on the first week. In week two, walk the stairs for one lap and run the second lap. In week three run two laps. Increase by adding a lap each week until you can run 5-8 laps consistently.

Tips for stair climbing:

• Pick up your feet.
• Watch where you are going. Especially on the way down.
• Keep knees up high and swing your arms hard.
• If you need to hold onto a handrail in the beginning - do it. Gradually work your way off the rail.
• Be consistent and try to get into a rhythm.
• Bring a buddy along so you can motivate and push each other to get stronger and work hard.

Give stairs a try for a few weeks and let me know how your workouts go. After a few weeks, your quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves should feel much stronger.

Happy training!