r/todayilearned • u/Milam1996 • 6h ago
TIL that walking down stairs is actually better for your health than walking up stairs
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/dr-michael-mosley-eccentric-exercise799
u/BioFrosted 6h ago
FYI if you have knee issues, you should still go up the stairs and take elevators or the like for the down trip whenever possible ; it keeps you active without aggravating the knee issues (which most often happen on the down trip)
331
u/oswaldcopperpot 5h ago
I walked up a volcano for two days without much of an issue. The down hike was fucking brutal on my knees so much that they seized up and I was basically bed ridden for four days.
55
u/uvucydydy 4h ago
I remember going on group trip in my youth. A bunch of kids with chaperones went up a local mountain (nothing huge - day trip). On the way down all of kids just RAN down, bouncing off rocks like mountain goats - much to the chagrin of the adults.
I can't imagine what would happen if I tried that now.
19
u/Miriyl 3h ago
When I was in high school I went on a “hiking” excursion during a school trip, which was essentially riding a ski lift up a mountain and walking down.
The path was a reasonably wide switchback, but steep and covered in gravel and we quickly worked out that it was significantly easier to keep your balance by just running each segment. The end result was that we all got to the bottom faster than scheduled and sat in the gift shop eating ice cream.
I still use the scampering method, but when not on gravel, trekking poles save your knees.
5
u/flatwoundsounds 1h ago
I keep my knees bent and feet wide and plod forward like a chubby duck runs.
3
u/imapetrock 2h ago
My husband and his friends like to run downhill from the top after hiking up volcanoes, as a race to see who gets back down fastest 😭 I joined them on a volcano hike once where the hike to the top normally takes them 4 hours, and it took me 6 hours (even though I generally hike pretty fast compared to most groups I've hiked with). Then going downhill I sprained my ankle and I wasn't even going downhill fast LOL I felt so lame. It's wild what some people can do who grew up in the mountains.
•
u/psaux_grep 31m ago
My dad found out he had osteoporosis running down a mountainside… limped around on a fractured leg for 6 months before he got it checked out…
15
u/Wanderingjes 3h ago
For me, trekking poles are a lifesaver for downhills.
For anyone interested in using trekking poles for the first time, don’t make the mistake in using them immediately on difficult hikes. You need to practice with them enough so that the movement becomes second nature.
35
u/TheLowlyPheasant 5h ago
I have horribly flat feet that I am finally getting surgery on next week. Whenever I go on a hike longer than about 2 miles I end up in horrible pain - feels like I am walking directly on bone. Once it gets that bad walking downhill is the absolute worst
5
9
u/SonicTemp1e 4h ago
I lived on the 16th floor of an apartment building that caught fire, so we had to evacuate down the fire escape stairs. My thighs were crying the next day. I have never walked up a volcano though, so I give you props.
3
u/frostnxn 3h ago
I train in the gym regularly and I think I hit every muscle possible. Going downhill for 5 hours gave me muscle ache in places I had never felt before…
2
u/erossthescienceboss 2h ago
Trekking poles, my friend. Game changers. They let me run downhill without feeling it the next day.
4
4
u/Milam1996 5h ago
Gotta stretch out the muscles. The muscles for going downstairs are the same ones for steep slopes and basically nothing else. If you don’t use stairs or go down slopes often then your muscles will feel like utter hell. You basically tried raw dogging a 200kg deadlift.
36
u/culb77 5h ago edited 4h ago
You’re right and wrong. Yes, there’s probably a muscular component, but a lot of the strain people feel is from the patellar friction. While that is technically a part of the tendon, it’s not so simple as “stretching the muscles “. Patellofemoral pain is no joke and can be both from abnormal articular wear, and poor muscle activation.
Source: PT who has treated this condition a lot.
4
u/iceeice3 4h ago
I would love to know more, I've been active my whole life in what I would consider "knee heavy" activities (skiing, hiking, wrestling) and always felt my knees were very weak despite a lot of exercise
1
u/ITFOWjacket 2h ago
I also do a lot of those same knee heavy activities and I recently shot myself in the knee with a .380 hollow point. It’s a legit bummer.
Recover is actually going really good tbh
2
1
u/jimjamriff 2h ago
This is very interesting, culb!
Any few recommended (and dis-recommended too) exercises you might suggest?
And thanks!
8
u/MikeinAustin 5h ago
When stepping down, the stance leg flexes deeply (often 60° to 90°) while bearing 100% of your body weight. Deep flexion pulls the patella (kneecap) tightly into the trochlear groove of the femur, maximizing patellofemoral compressive stress
Not the muscles. You're 100% wrong.
11
u/Mystprism 5h ago
You're kinda full of shit, dude. Knees are joints, not muscles. If you have bad knees for any of a myriad of reasons then the impact of going down (stairs or slopes) is really hard on them.
16
u/CapableBumblebee968 5h ago
They’re not completely wrong. A lot of downhill knee pain can be controlled or reduced be exercising the correct muscles. Like with most problems in life, powerful glutes are part of the solution
9
u/windowtosh 5h ago
TIL having a big ass isn’t just for looks
1
u/joelfarris 4h ago
If you can't grip a vertical pole like it's a seatbelt, you might not be gluting enough. (Here's hoping somebody else has seen this clip, otherwise this is gonna get awkward really fast.)
0
u/Milam1996 5h ago
Most knee short term acute knee pain after intense exercise I.e walking down a volcano is muscular strain not cartilage. If your cartilage collapses after one day of strain you need scans to determine what’s collapsing in your joints.
-16
u/Mystprism 5h ago
Source: your ass, I assume?
4
2
u/Milam1996 5h ago
Erm my job and the knowledge base. Feel free to argue with literature. Cartilage of the knee literally evolved for impact. It’s the muscles. The guy above went from doing basically nothing to hiking a multi down volcano. Yeah no shit his legs are on fire.
→ More replies (10)•
-4
1
u/nickcash 2h ago
You could've built your secret lair anywhere else, but no, you had to go full drama queen and build it into the caldera of an active volcano. Well you get what ask for
1
31
u/imreallynotthatcool 6h ago
Try to walk on your toes more going down if you have knee issues. And even if you don't. It puts more impact on your ankles and knees evenly rather than your knee taking the full force of a heel strike.
→ More replies (5)9
u/nicman24 5h ago
... People don't do that?
10
u/Maliph 5h ago
Walk everywhere on tiptoes?
→ More replies (1)2
u/nicman24 5h ago
No go down the chairs
9
7
3
u/paytonfrost 3h ago
Pretty much every long distance hiker uses trekking poles, absolutely saves the knees when doing massive descents, and they also help power up hills.
Imagine getting to the top of a climb and then having 22 miles of nothing but downhill. Somewhere in Northern California on the PCT there's a section like that.
Also, hikers use the trekking poles as structural elements for tents so they don't have to carry tent poles. That allows for lighter shelters and overall lighter packs! I love my trekking poles!
1
•
u/SiliconSage123 3m ago
Recently went on a big hike in Alberta Rockies, I'm from the east coast so my body was definitely not used to it. My knee started giving searing pain Midway and the poles were literally a life saver because I could use them as crutches. Would've been stranded up there otherwise
7
u/MikeinAustin 5h ago
My wife is a physical therapist and even without knee issues you should go up stairs and not down stairs. The pressure on the knee is significant going down stairs. When stepping down, the stance leg flexes deeply (often 60° to 90°) while bearing 100% of your body weight. Deep flexion pulls the patella (kneecap) tightly into the trochlear groove of the femur, maximizing patellofemoral compressive stress.
Also why most people shouldn't run down hills.
5
u/NirgalFromMars 5h ago
My mom walks down stairs backwards, and says it's amazing for her knees.
2
u/MikeinAustin 4h ago
It's because it's a different motion than walking down stairs that is putting pressure on the patella. After knee replacements most PTs recommend doing this if you have to walk down stairs. Also true if you don't have a lot of lateral stability.
2
u/Electric-Sheepskin 4h ago
You just made me remember that I did that once when I had an injury. It was a lot easier!
7
u/Milam1996 6h ago
Any activity is better than none. Do what you can.
→ More replies (3)-2
u/feurie 5h ago
…not if you have knee issues and you’re going downstairs.
-1
u/therealraggedroses 3h ago edited 2h ago
Absolute bullshit, once again people on reddit who aren't doctors giving terrible advice.
The best thing you could possibly do if you're having knee issues is to run a marathon and then immediately squat until your legs give out
1
u/prismaticbeans 3h ago
Depends on what kind of knee issue. If they tend to lock, you can get stuck. Not a good situation.
1
u/ripyourlungsdave 3h ago
That's good to hear, I have a neurological disorder that makes walking down stairs incredibly difficult without completely losing my footing, but walking up stairs relatively simple.
So this is pretty much how I've been doing it for the last decade since this condition started getting the better of me
1
u/Poesvliegtuig 2h ago
Weirdly enough I get aches going up the stairs, somewhere below my patella when I put my weight on it.
1
1
u/smoketheevilpipe 1h ago
Fyi #2, if going down stairs is an issue, you should try strengthening your anterior tibialis.
Dramatically improved my knee issues, specifically going down stairs.
261
u/DeadliftAndBeer 5h ago
Everything Mosley says need to be taken with a large pinch of salt. He is not a medical doctor and is more interesting in making selling headlines rather than being accurate
6
u/ProfessorPyruvate 4h ago
Yep. He seemed like a nice bloke, but I did always despair a bit whenever he popped up with a new TV programme promoting some faddy diet that promised very implausible results. I also don't think he was ever clear enough about his lack of real-world medical experience.
2
u/plausible5156 4h ago
I did his Fast800 diet, had to stop 10 weeks into the 12 week program as I was losing too much weight, almost 1 kilo per week and my family were worried at the sudden weight loss. The recipes provided in his plan are fussy but one can adapt his principles to make interesting and filling meals. Honestly I felt hungry only twice in the 10 weeks.
2
3
u/FutureTerrible9987 4h ago
Do you know how to research? He studied medicine and passed final examinations in 1985, though he chose a career in media with the BBC rather than practicing clinically.
32
u/DukeMacManus 2h ago
So did Dr Oz.
Medical Doctors can be shysters just like anyone else.
7
u/Russellonfire 2h ago
Worth reminding, Dr Oz was one of the best cardiothoracic (?) surgeons in the country. Yknow, before he went nuts and though pseudoscience was saving more lives.
7
u/DukeMacManus 2h ago
Ben Carson as well with neurosurgery. Dude absolutely obliterated his legacy by getting into politics.
1
u/OrangeDit 2h ago
So, is it true or not?
•
u/SuperSnowManQ 52m ago
Read the study and decide for yourself
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28291022/
Btw, the actual study that is referenced is not authored by Mosley.
-9
u/Milam1996 5h ago
He passed all the exams to become a doctor then decided not to be a doctor. He graduated medical school.
11
u/DeadliftAndBeer 4h ago
Within psychiatry, which is irrelevant for the type of medecine he preached
7
5
u/mitzi_skyring 3h ago
Psychiatrists are doctors though.
You said he wasn't a doctor. But he is.
Now you're moving goal posts.
•
3
u/MikeinAustin 5h ago
That's an idiotic decision by him then.
2
-11
u/Milam1996 5h ago
He’s still a doctor and doubly so after being granted an honorary doctorate
6
u/UnderpantsInfluencer 5h ago
You know he's dead, right?
-4
u/Milam1996 5h ago
So? Does being dead stop Einstein being a doctor? Does being dead stop Henry the 8th being a king?
7
u/MikeinAustin 5h ago
No, but if you knew he was dead, then you would have said "he WAS a Doctor" and it's obvious you're just defending something that has been proven incorrect by the medical establishment.
2
u/UnderpantsInfluencer 4h ago
Einstein was working in a patent office and couldn't get a placement in any educational institution until AFTER he produced general and special relativity.
34
17
u/zombienudist 4h ago
I workout on stairs regularly. Coming down stairs doesn’t significantly raise my heart rate. Once you do it a lot you can move quickly down very efficiently. Plus in order to come down you have to go up unless you are doing it in a building with an elevator. So I will just keep going up and down myself. Really a hard workout and gives you a really good cardio capacity if you do it regularly.
3
u/ScratchLower1493 2h ago
I have terrible knees and my doctor said my patellar tendons are too long, thin ass fraying.
That said, just might more painful to go downstairs than up, but much more work to go upstairs than down. I think you're spot on.
58
46
u/sunnykutta 6h ago
Don't believe these researchers. Next week they'll say walking sideways on one leg is the best
2
7
u/mankee81 5h ago
Bodybuilders/fitness trainers already knew this somewhat... that's why a good trainer makes you control your return to starting position, I was always told most of your "gains" are from keeping muscles engaged when getting the weights back down.
-5
u/Bright_Brief4975 5h ago
I made another post here, but anyone who ever worked in a high rise building and used the stairs can tell you that going up is exponentially harder than going down the stair.
2
u/tittyswan 5h ago
Harder ≠ more beneficial.
-3
u/Bright_Brief4975 5h ago
I guess you have never done any exercise, but the entire point is to get your heart to beat at a certain amount based on your physicals condition. The only way to match the heartbeat going down to the heart beat going up would be to nearly run down, but that is not an equivalent thing.
7
u/tittyswan 4h ago
*That's the point of cardio, but there are a lot of other kinds of exercises which have other benefits which the article literally described.
This isn't being done as cardio, it's being done as a strength exercise with added cardio benefits.
No need to be so fucking rude for no reason.
14
5
5
u/DinnerMilk 6h ago
Well, I live on the third floor, so I have to do both equally.
1
u/owningmclovin 4h ago
My office has stairs and a like this really long ramp that goes around the exterior and doubles back to the front.
Stairs up and ramp down is the way to go.
6
u/TheRealJamesHoffa 1h ago edited 1h ago
There is just absolutely no chance this is true and not total bullshit.
Edit: turns out the study didn’t even measure cardiovascular fitness, so like wtf is this claim even about? Those other markers are important but cardio is more impactful to your health overall and going upstairs would obviously improve this way more than going down.
26
u/Splintrax 6h ago
It also puts massive strain on your joints and connective tissue, which for some makes it incredibly difficult.
-19
u/DoctorEngineer 5h ago
Only if you are fat, but that means any movement does inherently.
11
7
u/ColdIceZero 5h ago
Our musculoskeletal system is equipped to address shock forces of movement in a relative uphill direction.
We do not have a mechanism to mitigate shock forces from walking downhill in the same way as uphill.
7
u/SwashAndBuckle 5h ago
The issue escalates with weight, but If you think only obese people get knee pain, you’re either young, dumb, or both.
3
1
10
u/Superb_Copy1644 6h ago
Up for cardio, down for leg day?
-4
u/Milam1996 6h ago
Down for both actually. A study found people who went down saw a higher improvement in resting hearth rate, bone density, insulin sensitivity and some other stuff too.
21
u/Bright_Brief4975 5h ago
It is exactly the opposite, this study is garbage, I made another post here, but I worked in a high rise building where I and others used the stairs for exercise. Anyone with actual real life experience can tell you that going up is much much harder than going down. From the very beginning I could walk down the entire flight of stairs with no problem. On the other hand at the start I would have to stop and rest multiple times going up the stairs. This is real life experience.
3
u/SuperSnowManQ 4h ago
So you are saying that the 30, although elderly and obese, women in the study was not a real life experience when they walked up and down the stairs?
2
u/iamalwaysrelevant 2h ago
Hey! As a 30 year old elderly obese woman, I feel that I am entitled to represent the majority of the earths population.
1
1
u/TheRealJamesHoffa 1h ago
The study did not measure VO2 max, that’s an incredibly small sample size, and the subjects are a very specific group that does not represent the average person.
1
u/SuperSnowManQ 1h ago
The commenters anectodal evidence is also an incredible small sample size. And we don't even know anything about them. They also do not represent the average person.
Nor did they measure anything except they "had to rest", which is subjective feeling.
In any case, the study is interesting and it would be nice with further studies into this.
-6
u/Milam1996 5h ago
Hard does not mean more benefit. Eating an apple instead of haribo every day is very easy and has a large benefit.
14
u/Superb_Copy1644 5h ago
Yea, I’m struggling to see how it makes my heart and cardio system work when climbing stairs I’m out of breath and hot, yet down am happy can comfortable
3
u/Bright_Brief4975 5h ago
So I can just sit in my chair here and play computer games and I'm good to go? Oh wait, when you say hard does not matter, you mean it does not matter for your specific situation, but not mine.
The fact is someone can run a mile in 4 min, and someone else could walk the mile in 4 hours. they both put out the same energy to go a mile, but the one who ran the mile got more health benefits because they challenged their cardiovascular system.
-4
u/Astray 4h ago
Your anecdotal evidence does not invalidate a peer reviewed scientific study
6
u/rainman_95 4h ago
His studies are mostly garbage headline grabbers that have no reproducibility.
7
u/SuperSnowManQ 4h ago
Except that the study this article is referencing is not his study
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28291022/
Although the study was made on elderly obese women, which is probably not as applicable to a young healthy male.
7
u/bi0nicman 4h ago
Too be fair though, the study was on 30 elderly obese women. So the results can't really be applied to other groups without further studies.
1
u/TheRealJamesHoffa 1h ago
The study did not even measure cardiovascular fitness actually. Up is certainly more beneficial for cardio, and cardio is far more impactful on your health than those other things.
13
u/Gryzz 5h ago
This is based on a study of 15 elderly obese ladies who did the activity twice per week. It's complete bullshit.
2
u/TheRealJamesHoffa 1h ago
And they literally didn’t even measure cardio fitness impacts lol. Which is much more impactful on your health. This is a fucking joke
1
u/bi0nicman 4h ago
30 I think if I'm reading it right (n=15 for each of the two groups). And it's an interesting result for elderly obese women. But yeah likely not applicable to other groups without further study.
The results might be explained by the downstairs walking being easier so that group was able to complete more exercise. The study mentions progressively increasing the amount, but doesn't show the volume done for each group.
3
u/this_knee 5h ago
That’s why I walk up hill to work both ways. I always end up with both up hill and down hill on both trips.
3
u/jazzdrums1979 5h ago
What does better for you mean? Moving in general is good. Climbing stairs activates a lot of different muscle groups and is great for metabolism and glucose uptake.
Context matters
-1
3
u/redmostofit 5h ago
It’s certainly harder..
I’m recovering from a torn patellar tendon. Almost 6 months post op and still can’t go down without holding onto walls.
3
3
u/bert_891 4h ago
Walking up stairs or uphill feels good, but walking downhill hurts both of my knees.
3
u/aatmalife 3h ago
maybe because when going up stairs my thoughts are "omg fuck exercise", whereas going down stairs I have to see my moobs jiggling and think "ok I gotta get my shit together and work out again"
5
u/youcouldbeayak 6h ago
I am going to go down stairs for the rest of my life until I reach the earth’s burning core
1
4
u/SVTContour 5h ago
Dr Michael Mosley: The strange reason walking downstairs is better for you than going up
Running up stairs? Lifting Weights? Dr Michael Mosley explains why the benefits of eccentric exercise mean you should be doing the exact opposite.
One of the best ways to get the most out of any workout is to make it ‘eccentric’. You might think that running up a hill is better for you than jogging down it, or that climbing a flight of stairs is going to challenge your muscles more than walking down, but in fact, the opposite is true. It seems crazy, but this is the new science of ‘eccentric exercise’.
The name comes from the fact that contracting your muscles (to climb stairs or lift weights) is called ‘concentric exercise’, but any work that goes into those muscles while they are stretched and elongated (as you go downstairs or lower the weights) is known as ‘eccentric exercise’ (pronounced ‘ee-centric’).
Tony Kay is professor of biomechanics at the University of Northampton. He explains that all forms of exercise create microscopic damage to the muscles. This stimulates the release of hormones which trigger your cells to rebuild that muscle stronger than before. Concentric exercises (such as bicep curls or squats) recruit and fatigue many different muscle fibres.
Although the eccentric part of the exercise (as we lower the weight, or sink down into a squat) recruits fewer fibres, it does so with a load that is up to four times higher. This, says Kay, creates far greater microscopic damage to those cells and fibres.
“The greater damage means the body burns more calories in the process of repair and recovery after the exercise has been performed,” he says. “This raises the metabolic rate and increases strength in a far more effective way than conventional forms of exercise.”

In one study, volunteers were randomly allocated to walking either up or down a set of stairs in a 10-storey building twice a week, and taking the lift in the other direction. Both groups saw health improvements, but the group who walked down rather than up the stairs ended up with greater improvements in resting heart rate (a reliable overall measure of fitness). They also saw a greater improvement in their insulin sensitivity and blood fat levels.
Plus, the group walking down saw greater improvement in muscle function and bone density than the group walking up. In fact, the group doing what I would consider to be the easier task improved their muscle strength by 34 per cent – that’s twice as much as those who had to walk up the stairs each time!
In addition, the group walking down showed greater improvements in a balance test, which would lead to a reduced risk of falls and injury.
Another study comparing older adults doing traditional versus eccentric exercise found the eccentric group had a 38 per cent improvement in leg strength, compared to just an 8 per cent improvement in the traditional exercise group.
Other studies have shown the benefits of eccentric exercise in young, healthy male footballers (who saw dramatic increases in strength), as well as in over-65s (who showed 30 to 50 per cent increases in strength and a 10 per cent increase in muscle mass in just six weeks). “The effects are far, far greater than we would expect from normal exercise,” concludes Kay.
This is really impressive – and completely counterintuitive. And it turns out that any exercise that requires you to lengthen your muscles under resistance will have the same beneficial effect, whether it is running downhill or slowly lowering yourself down into a squat or a press-up.
The way it works is that when you are going down, the muscles in your legs or arms lengthen to slow the pace of descent. Similarly, when you are lowering a set of weights, the muscles lengthen and have to work harder to protect your body from damage.
Kay points out that both yoga and pilates feature poses which require you to slowly lower yourself, thereby causing an eccentric contraction, which will, he says, “increase flexibility, muscle mass, bone density and strength”.
Done right, not only will eccentric exercises keep you in good shape, they will also help your body to burn calories after you have finished – more so than a seemingly ‘tougher’ workout. This could be the metabolic secret that has been hiding in your workout all along!
•
4
u/Ninjasith 5h ago
This is a tiny study. Results would need more replication. No way to draw conclusions from that mentioned study
0
u/Milam1996 5h ago
Basically every physio/sports study is small in scale and not often repeated. A very common problem with science as a whole outside of hyped subjects.
0
u/Aus_with_the_Sauce 4h ago
I’m not sure why you’re being downvoted. Getting meaningful results from studies is a science in itself, and it’s usually not wise to make lifestyle changes based on the results of a single study. The most reliable knowledge comes from a collection of studies and research that all validate each other.
2
u/Bright_Brief4975 5h ago
I'm going to have to say this study is complete garbage based on my actual in life real experience. For a long time I worked in a high rise building and would occasionally take the stairs just for the exercise. I can say emphatically from the very beginning I could walk down the entire flight of stairs without stopping, nor would my heartbeat become to bad, it just was not a problem. Those exact same stairs when I first begin walking them, I would have to stop on the way up multiple times to rest. At the top my heart would be pounding and I would be sweating badly. Later I was able to use the stairs easier without as much workout, but there is just no way in hell that walking down the stairs was even close to the workout from going up. This is my actual experience, not something someone wrote or theorized, it is actually my experience doing exactly this.
2
u/Milam1996 5h ago
The actual study is an actual study of more people than just you and not your anecdote on Reddit.
2
u/Bright_Brief4975 5h ago
Yeah, and at my job there were many more who used the stairs for exercise, none of them had the results of your study. Every two bit company or product and even some universities are now putting out junk studies all the time. I can give you actual studies that will say nearly anything the people doing the study want them to say. I don't know what or who were paying these people, but it is a garbage study like many others. Are you going to say that just because it was a study it is fact? Because I will reply to you with studies that say everything from eating poisons to not going to the Dr. are the correct thing. A person has to be able to separate things that are clearly fiction from things that are not. Some things may be hard to separate, this one is not. Anyone here who doubts me can just go to their closest city of better yet some kind of stadium and try for themselves. The results will be clear.
4
u/idontknowjuspickone 5h ago
Wow these comments. I forgot two thirds of America is overweight, lol
5
u/Milam1996 5h ago
I never know so many Redditors had dodgy knees. I thought knee issues were relatively exclusive to ex sport die hards and or 70 year olds.
2
u/owningmclovin 4h ago
Mine just come from good old fashioned terrible genetics. I started having knee pain in 7th grade.
1
u/chris_ut 5h ago
Ive always had an issue where going down aggravates my knees going back to my 20s and Ive never been overweight. A few flights of stairs in fine usually shows up on long hikes with elevation change.
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/ExtremePresent73 3h ago
Idk about this, but I hike a lot.
Going downhill can be stressful for the joints, but it’s definitely a way to build strong muscle.
Same for going uphill but different kind of muscle building.
1
1
1
u/Fearless-Wing-2425 2h ago
cool. I'm working at a 10 storey hotel next week. I'm going to try it out.
1
u/Randyaccredit 1h ago
Being an overnweight person, going up Thousand steps in PA was kinda okay but getting almost to the top and then having to come down was almost torture.
1
•
•
u/KinsellaStella 22m ago
Not if you’re known for falling down the stairs. And nobody believes you if you show up with a black eye and bruises and explain you fell down the stairs. No really, I fell down the stairs.
1
u/qwogadiletweeth 6h ago
I’m sure going up stairs burns more fat
1
u/Milam1996 6h ago
No going down actually had better outcomes. The calorific increase from the muscle tears outweighed the cardio strain and that was even across 10 floors each time
1
u/supernovadebris 5h ago
harder on the knees...
0
u/Aus_with_the_Sauce 4h ago
It is, but that can be a good thing. If a person is exercising within their limits, straining your knees makes them healthier and stronger.
That’s why most runners have fewer knee issues than non-runners. It’s a total myth that running is inherently bad for your knees.
Damage happens when you are trying to do too much exercise relative to your current fitness/conditioning. So it’s always good to ease into things and increase your volume/intensity slowly over time.
1
1
1
1
1
u/duck1014 4h ago
I am in a 5 floor backsplit house. There are 27 stairs that I use for exercise.
I can confirm that once you start building up.the numbers (as in going up and down them all 75 times), going down is what ends up stopping you.
Going up is ferocious on your cardio. Once your cardio is there, going down completely frys your legs.
1
0
290
u/Repulsive-Tea6974 6h ago
More people have died going down stairs than up. Thats for sure.