I am doing the Empire State Building race next month, so I have been doing stairs regularly after my runs. The stair sessions seem to be helping my regular running - anyone else have the same experience?
What feels different are my quads - they feel much stronger from the stairs, which seems to be helping me 'ride' a little rather than rely on my hamstrings to push.
I used them for 6 weeks after knee surgery (partial meniscus tear through arthroscope) a long, long time ago. Luckily I had an 8-storey office building to work with. Worked really well. Started one step at a time (OK, I had been on crutches), progressed to 2 steps most of the time, then did some 3-step-at-a-time work at the end (more like bounding) before resuming running.
What sort of motion are you using? I was doing the slow-motion, six-million-dollar-man thing complete with the creaking sounds (if anyone's old enough to remember that!) - step up in control with arm action and try to rise onto toes a little. Great for your adductors and balance. If you run up them it's different but probably equally good.
I bet you could run an awesome 3000 or 5000 shortly after this!
I used to do "towers" in a five-story parking garage on nasty, rainy, dark, Oregon winter nights, up one tower to the top, down the ramp, up another tower, etc. until I had done 16 towers, and recovered gently down 16 ramps. No pounding, good for quads, as hard aerobically as you wanted it to be. Seems like an even better option for dark, snowy, icy nights in harsher weather environments. The lighting is another advantage.
I also found that after a hard half-marathon effort that left me sore way up into the groin because of intensity/duration demands of the race, I would often be hobbling for a week until I discovered that even gentle running up flights of stairs got blood flow in and out of those "racing muscles" that no amount of easy running on flat surfaces could touch. Stairs seemed to be the perfect easy recovery run for that particular problem.
old steepler wrote:
What sort of motion are you using? If you run up them it's different but probably equally good.
I bet you could run an awesome 3000 or 5000 shortly after this!
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I am running up them - as fast I can, safely and without exploding an artery or two. I think I will stick with it after the Empire State race - clearly my quads are benefiting from the resistance. An awesome 3k or 5k would sure be a good payoff.