Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer lifeLive your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletterLive your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletterNeed a lower-impact activity that can also help you burn calories, build muscles, and boost your overall health? Climbing five flights of stairs a day is just as beneficial as taking the widely recommended 10,000 steps, according to experts. Taking at least 50 steps up flights of stairs could slash Americans’ risk of developing cardiovascular disease by as much as 20 percent, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine previously found. They noted that this was true even for people who don’t have risk factors for the condition, such as poor diet and advanced age.Regularly climbing stairs was also shown to reduce the risk of death from heart disease by 39 percent, according to researchers from the U.K.Heart disease is the top killer in the U.S., resulting in more than 919,000 deaths in 2023. That’s the equivalent of one in three deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.open image in galleryTaking the stairs could be a better way to protect your heart health and build muscle, experts say (Getty Images)”I was surprised that such a simple form of exercise can reduce all-cause mortality,” Dr. Sophie Paddock, of the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Foundation Trust, told NPR.For many, stairs are also an easier way to get fit. Publicly available and low-cost, they put less pressure on your joints compared with running.“When running, your body weight is transferred through your legs and joints with each stride, but with stair-climbing, your feet are constantly in contact with the steps, so the impact on your joints is significantly reduced,” Meghan Kennihan, an RRCA- and USATF-certified running coach, told Runner’s World.And taking the stairs forces the heart and muscles to work harder. Continuous climbing burns seven times more calories than taking the elevator, according to Chase Brexton Health Care. “Your heart rate goes up, your cardiac output goes up, and your circulatory status improves,” Dr. Manish Parikh, the chief of cardiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, also told NPR. open image in galleryLess than half of U.S. adults get the recommended amount of exercise (AFP via Getty Images)The benefits of taking the stairs can also be felt fairly quickly. Just one or two months of daily climbs are enough to start to lower your risk for disease, another review found.Right now projections show at least 60 percent of U.S. adults could be affected by cardiovascular disease within the next 30 years.Fewer than half of adults in the U.S. get the recommended amount of weekly exercise. Federal health guidelines recommend engaging in 150 minutes or more of aerobic and muscle strengthening physical activity, including running, walking, and strength training. For people who don’t get much exercise now, taking the stairs can be a good start to build up long-term stamina.“Stairs challenge us physically, so just by using them more often, we increase our stamina and strength for other focused exercise,” Suzanne Steinbaum, a cardiologist and spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, told AARP.
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Here’s how many flights of stairs a day you need to climb to improve your health
