15-Minute Stair Climbing Challenge
Climbing stairs forces your heart rate to rise and makes you burn fat. At the same time, you’re working your glutes, obliques, quads and your core, more intensely than you would on a flat surface. That’s why in this article we’ll tell you about a 15-minute stair climbing challenge that will get you into shape without any equipment.
Workouts that use stairs are perfect to get your heart rate up and help you to avoid high blood pressure, weight gain, and clogged arteries. At the same time, they reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, vascular dementia and even some types of cancer.
Plus, climbing stairs also works your bones and muscles, thereby improving strength, bone density and muscle tone. These types of ‘incidental’ physical activities are associated with better mental health, due to the release of endorphins when the body is exercising.
Exercising is also the perfect time to think and reflect, which are key factors to fighting stress and overall daily tension.
15-minute stair climbing challenge
1. Jumping squats
To begin this stair climbing challenge, you’ll be doing jumping exercises to increase your heart rate and burn some calories.
Start by standing and then jumping onto the first step; land with your right foot.
Then, jump with both feet, and do a squat while on the same step. Repeat, jumping to the second step and landing with the left foot. Keep going up, alternating legs and come back to the initial position. You should complete 3 sets of 10 repetitions each.
2. Rhythmic running
In this second exercise, the goal is to make the blood in your legs pump. In order to do that, first start by going up the stairs slowly, keeping your shoulders back and looking straight ahead. When it’s time to come back down, do it slowly and repeat 3 times.
After you’re done with the first three rounds, run upstairs. When you’re coming down, try to do it slowly so that the weight of your body is on your heels. Thus, your glutes will absorb the impact instead of your knees. Do another 2 sets to finish.
“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, a vision.”
-Muhammad Ali-
3. Push-ups
In third place, we have push-ups on the stairs. As you can imagine, you’ll be able to seize the slope of the steps to increase the difficulty. To do these push-ups, place your hands on the ground and your feet on the first step. At that moment, you can do your push-ups as you normally would.
If you want to, you can make it even more difficult by using the following steps of the stair, which will compromise your muscles. We recommend doing 3 sets of 10 repetitions each. At the end of each repetition, go running up and down the stairs and then take a 10-second break.
4. Triceps dips
Lastly, we present to you an amazing way to train your triceps by using the stairs. It will not only tackle this pair of muscles but your whole body as well. All you need to do is sit at the edge of the second or third step, depending on your height. Press the palm of your hands down and slightly lift your buttocks from the step. Then, extend your legs and use your heels for support.
Then, lower down part of your bottom at the same time as you bend your arms, forming a 90-degree angle. Press back until you come back to the initial position. That’s one repetition!
Do 3 sets of 15 repetitions each. Don’t forget to go up the stairs as fast as you can and come down slowly. You can take a 10-second break after each set.
Finally, remember that in order to complete this 15-minute stair climbing challenge, the most important thing is that you do a good warm up to avoid injuring yourself. Plus, know that there are many variations of each one of the exercises, so fun is guaranteed! We’re convinced that after a few weeks of this challenge, you’ll notice the benefits of working out on the stairs.
