Health promotion with stair exercise

Abstract

For developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in healthy adults, a minimum of 30 min of moderate-intensity physical activity or 20 min of vigorous-intensity physical activity per exercise day is recommended. However, many adults are still physically inactive because of the lack of time and facilities, bad weather, and other factors. Therefore, it is important to develop a type of exercise that is effective for health promotion and easy to do in daily life. An exercise with stairs is likely to satisfy this aim. Using data from previous studies, we produced the following formula to predict the intensity (oxygen consumption) during stair-ascending exercise. Oxygen consumption (ml/kg/min) = 2.03 x [moving speed for vertical direction in m/min] + 3.7. Previous intervention studies of exercise using stairs show that stair-ascending exercise improves fitness and health, but is too intense for unfit and/or elderly adults. Stair exercise can be performed more easily if it comprises ascending and descending stairs alternately using a short flight of stairs. Our data suggest that stair-ascending/descending exercise expands the availability of stair exercise for health promotion.