The pros and cons of climbing stairs

Climbing stairs should be very familiar to everyone, because most people climb stairs almost every day in their daily lives. Many residential areas today are low-rise buildings, so there are usually stairs but very few elevators. In addition, private buildings in the countryside usually have stairs, so ordinary people usually have to climb stairs frequently. So, what are the pros and cons of climbing stairs?

Many people are also very interested in this issue, because many people have already had similar ideas in their minds. No matter what the advantages and disadvantages of climbing stairs are, understanding them clearly will always be beneficial to our future lives. So, for this purpose, let's introduce in detail the advantages and disadvantages of climbing stairs.

Benefits of climbing stairs:

1. When climbing stairs for exercise, as your breathing speeds up, your muscles will contract and relax rhythmically, which can accelerate blood circulation, promote energy metabolism in the human body, increase oxygen supply to the myocardium, enhance cardiopulmonary function, smooth blood circulation, maintain a healthy cardiovascular system, and prevent the occurrence of high blood pressure.

2. It consumes a lot of calories and is a good way to lose weight. It is estimated that the calories burned by climbing stairs in the same amount of time are twice as much as playing badminton, four times as much as playing table tennis, and three times as much as walking, which is basically the same as the calories burned by climbing a mountain.

3. During the process of climbing stairs, due to the constant movement of the waist, back and lower limbs, the strength of the muscles and ligaments in these parts of the body are enhanced, and the joint function is improved, thereby maintaining the flexibility of the joints and avoiding stiffness. There was an 8-year follow-up survey, which selected 26 subjects aged 56 with basically the same physical conditions. The results showed that none of the 26 people who always insisted on climbing stairs developed leg joint diseases, their muscles were healthy, and their steps were strong; while the other 26 people did not participate in exercise, 12 felt cold and numb legs, and had difficulty walking, and 14 suffered from arthritis and joint stiffness.

4. Climbing stairs consumes a lot of physical energy, which makes people more likely to feel hungry and improves appetite, thus enhancing the function of the digestive system. In addition, due to repeated exertion of force on the abdomen, intestinal peristalsis is intensified, which can effectively prevent constipation.

5. Put the nervous system in the best resting state, which is conducive to sleep and avoids anxiety. Scientists also selected 20 company employees (32 years old) with basically the same physical conditions for follow-up tests. The first 10 people persisted in climbing stairs for 2 years, and none of them developed insomnia and neurasthenia; among the bottom 10 people who did not climb stairs, 7 developed insomnia and neurasthenia.

The disadvantages of climbing stairs to your health:

Climbing stairs is a weight-bearing exercise. The joints below the waist have to bear the weight of the body, especially the knees, which are under the greatest pressure.

When climbing stairs, the knee joints have to bear 3-4 times the body weight. Taking a person weighing 60 kg as an example, when walking on a flat road, each knee bears 60 kg of weight, but when climbing stairs, the weight on the knees becomes as high as 240 kg, which is equivalent to carrying the weight of a piano on each knee. And if you go faster, the pressure on your knees will increase. Moreover, when climbing stairs, the knee flexion increases, and the pressure between the patella and femur also increases accordingly, which will aggravate knee pain.

It can be seen that there are both advantages and disadvantages of climbing stairs. Generally, the benefits of climbing stairs include: promoting body metabolism, enhancing cardiopulmonary function, maintaining joint flexibility, promoting digestion, aiding sleep, etc.; while the disadvantages of climbing stairs generally include: excessive weight on the knees, prone to damage to the knee joints, etc. Therefore, we must look at the pros and cons of climbing stairs dialectically.