United States: An expert study indicates rapid stair climbing acts as an efficient exercise for senior citizens to build leg strength.
Previous research proved that staircases function effectively as exercise equipment.
Stair Climbing: A Secret to Strength?
The staircase proved in previous studies that it functions effectively as exercise according to this body of research.
A research team in Belgium carried out a random assignment of 46 healthy participants between 65 and 80 into two groups for their study.
After completing two flights of stairs as fast as possible during their workout sessions twice a week for twelve weeks, participants in this study demonstrated improved muscle power alongside functional capability.
Our bodies reduce both muscle strength and power along with the passing years.
The lead author, Evelien Van Roie, an assistant professor at Hasselt University, indicates that muscle power is a critical ability for older adults to react when they stumble because its speed and strength integration matter, washingtonpost.com reported.
“If you’re not able to move fast, even if you’re strong, you will still fall down,” she added.
“This is something we really need to train,” the expert added.
Faster Steps, Stronger Legs
The testing indicates that stair-climbing functions as a user-friendly home-based program to enhance muscle power capacity for elderly adults, according to study leader Evelien Van Roie.
“In Belgium, older adults are not really used to going to gyms to work out,” as Van Roie noted.
“We need to find alternative ways to train muscle power,” he added.
Each participant visited a university lab twice per week to complete their physical exercise, which lasted 35 minutes.
The subject group exercised on weightlifting machines for two upper-body exercises that included a chest press and low row after warming up for 10 minutes on a stationary bicycle.
Each group received separate workout assignments where participants in one group performed a leg-press machine as their exercise, and the remaining participants utilized stair-climbing activities, as washingtonpost.com reported.
The participants in the stair-climbing exercise began with four repetitions of leg exercises on a box rising 30 to 40 centimeters in height (approximately 1 or 1.3 feet) to build strength and muscle fatigue.
Participants stepped up, followed by consistent steps down, taking two seconds for each act.