Stair Laps as training for HS XC Runners?

It might be good injury prevention. Single leg exercise that is quad dominant and engages the glute meds.

They can be very good. A GREAT runner exercise is hoping up the whole flight on one leg. Make sure that they are keeping good ankle, hip, and knee posture while they do this exercise.

worth trying wrote:

They can be very good. A GREAT runner exercise is hoping up the whole flight on one leg. Make sure that they are keeping good ankle, hip, and knee posture while they do this exercise.

Yeah. I'd do this more as a plyometric type exercise than as "laps."

Marty Liquori used them.

As with most ancillary work, it can be functional as long as you know its function. The same way the typical high knee drills are thought of as form exercises but function well as an general strength introduction to plyometric work, knowing exactly what the purpose is matters for how you progress it.

Stair drills should be thought of along as plyometrics.

Single stair, double leg jumps progressing into double stair jumps, into single leg jumps. Or single leg bounds up, progressing into repeated-leg bounds. Rebound jumps where you start ontop of the stair, jump down and immediately back on top, then reset and repeat. Start with double legs, then move to single legs.

Start with a few sets of a few reps, and build gradually.

Especially with growing HS kids, knee tendons aren't growing as fast as their bones, and muscles. Be on sharp alert, and teach your athletes to be aware of knee tendonitis and Achilles tendonitis, and intervene immediately. Don't stop, but intervene.

General strength and good movement patterns is one of the most important things a HS coach can do for their athletes.

Running stairs could be beneficial as plyos as some others are eluding to, but running stairs of course is a pretty useless endeavor, much like indian runs. Those are things that non runners think are great but they're really not.

Being that you're taking over the team, your other option is to just never do them. four years from now you'll never have to hear kids requesting to do stairs again. But yo, it's your team.

My xc/track team ran the bleacher stairs when I was in HS (I'm 37 now). I agree with others that it may have a benefit as more of a plyometric workout, although HS kids are always going to want to make it a cardio workout by racing each other up the stairs. When I was in HS, we would work our way along the length of the bleachers, up one stair and down the next. In retrospect, I don't think it did much for us, other than risk injury as we ran down the stair on tired legs. Structure the use of stairs in a way that it doesn't become a cardio workout, but just a warm up drill. Also, if you want to incorporate explosive running into your training plan, sprinting up a steep, short hill is better than stairs. The footing on a hill is inclined (rather than flat like a stair) so it engages more of the calf muscle and achilles tendon to generate elastic recoil. Developing strong elastic calves/achilles (in addition to strong glutes and quads) is more beneficial IMO.

Went to HS with a pretty good sized football stadium. We definitely did them occasionally - supplemental hill work when living in a mostly flat area (we would drive 5+ miles once a week to run in the hills).

You won't ever see the "elites" (which are the one that right books) say they did stair laps. The issue is elites already have the basic fitness to run well.

I think they can be useful. I predominately use them in the winter, when indoor facilities are unavailable. I suppose if you don't have access to hills they could be used for that as well.

With sprinters I use them to help strengthen the minor muscles such as calfs, and the feet and ankles, with a little work for the quads. But it really doesn't have any direct running benefit, just simply fitness (similar to crossfit in that you just move around really fast for a period of time to get your heartrate up.)

I live in a town that has a small college campus built primarily on a hill. There are thousands of steps everywhere you turn. Many sets are more than 150 steps in a set. I coach the high school team. We routinely run steps after runs and workouts before strides on flat areas. We work on cadence, tapping on the midfoot with a quick take-away, and strengthening hips/butt. Also, one of our staple workouts is running sets of steps, coming off the top, and right into tempo or race paced intervals. The idea is to fatigue hips, butt, and legs including some lactic acid, and learning to surge and maintain in that state. This approach seems to have a lot of positive results. Can you incorporate the steps beyond just going up and down?

I am fortunate that the HS that I coach at has an indoor track. I mention that because it's key to how I use our stairs. First, I do this in the winter when our roads are covered in ice and doing any type of hill sprints or hill circuits is nigh impossible.

We do a circuit that includes maybe 3 reps 600m/800m/1000m or so @ the Daniels version of "tempo" w/60 seconds between reps and then a walk/jog to the stairs then 6xUp/Downs (we have 3 floors) and do maybe 3 total sets of the tempo/stair stuff with maybe 2-5 minutes between sets (essentially, enough time for H20 and a more deliberate walk/jog back to the track). I find that this workout helps in a non-specific strength building sort of way and switches things up for them. No doubt that they are pretty beat by the end, but I think they prefer doing that instead of straight track work all the time when we are stuck inside by the weather/school rules about weather. We are also fortunate enough to have treadmills. So, some of the older/stronger guys might do 5-10 minute runs @ "tempo" on the treadmill and then go into the stairs.

TL;DR -- I think stairs are good, especially when he weather is crappy. You can incorporate different work based on Lydiard/Magness/Jay Johnson.

Good luck, and I look forward to the flames that come with this being my first ever LetsRun post.

I've done them and felt the burn in my legs. I think they are pretty good training for those hills in cross country courses. However, I do prefer doing hill sprints (the steeper, the better but not any extremes). When doing stairs, you're forced to stride out however the stairs allow you to stride but when doing hill sprints, your stride can be however long your comfortable with. You also get more speed work in with hill sprints. I'd say do them both but I personally prefer hill sprints.

They are ideal if the xc race course has stairs on it!

Otherwise do hills