Running Stairs

I've been thinking about using stairs too.

Not sure about the specifics.

Anybody using them??

Just be careful about the pounding when you run back down, we did them in high school until everyone started getting hurt.

Thanks.

I might just walk down the stairs, and only run them up.

Actually your best bet is to take the elevator back down, at least most of the way. It can help to walk backward down the stairs for a flight or two, however...just be really careful.

I've run stairs before as an alternative workout but never on a consistent basis. While it is a good workout I'm not sure if it benefits running much. It would be interesting to hear from the science-type folks on this.

I do know that my calves get really sore after running stairs. During the workout it feels like I'm getting a better quad burn but it is always the calves that pay the next day.

Stair running is probably one of the best alternative to hill running. Marty Liquori used the stadium steps for his "hill" training to be ranked as the best middle distance runner in the world in the 70s. Arthur Lydiard always told people that, if they don't live in hilly area, go do some stair running. He suggested, as someone else did, to use elevator down because you may get tangled up and fall. I'd rather just jog down and have not had any problem.

I was doing Lydiard type hill training this summer with this young lady I'm coaching. One evening, we had a terrible thunder storm and we had no choice but move inside. Luckily there was a tall building near-by (flight of 7 floors). We went in and did the alternate of 1-step running (where you take one step at a time) and 2-steps running (where you skip one step; or double steps at a time) for 55 minutes (excluding warm-up and cool-down) with about 3-minutes jog around the basement room. It turned out, that was one of the best workouts we had this summer. With one long run and one hill training as her point workouts per week, she ran her first marathon in 3:41 (she only started running in April).

Thank you all for your replies!

Nobby, I will try the 1-step and 2-steps approach (hopefully when everybody has left...they already find me a little strange--that would be the coup de grâce!).

A desolate parking garage is great alternative to hills. I recommend early morning to avoid both cars and violent criminals.

Midwesterner WTH man???

For what it's worth, I don't use stairs as a workout but I try to go up the 10 flights to my office at least once a day and always use them going down. This is not a workout, but I think it has helped me strengthen otherwise underworked leg muscles. I don't know if there's a connection, but I've not had a significant leg issue since doing this.

I was a vaulter in college and pulled my hamstring badly during my senior year. I moved to Chicago and started running stairs in the 60 story building I worked in. (Marina City Tower). I would take the elevator down and repeat several times. The company I worked for at the time (Chicago Health Club) sponsored the Chicago Marathon and the day before the race, I realized that no one representing our company was running. So I went out and ran a mile (the first since I pulled my hammy.) The next day I averaged 8 minutes a mile for the first 18 miles of the marathon. That is with one mile total of running in the previous 6 months, but hundreds of times up 60 flights of stairs. I also alternated running every step and skipping one. What a great workout!!! Don't ask what happened after 18 miles, it wasn't pretty!

i seem to get injured easily with groin pulls when bounding on hills or doing stair running. What about using a Stair Stepper such as I've seen at my gym?