My Love Affair with the Step Mill. And a Little Cardio Rant.

I am a bare-bones kind of girl when it comes to the equipment I require to train. I am not a fan of machines in general, much preferring barbells and dumbbells when it comes to weight-training.  But I have to admit that when it comes to cardio, my preferences are a little farther up on the technological hierarchy. Okay, running outside is a great cardio activity, and for those who actually enjoy it (dedicated whacko triathletes like my husband, for instance), pounding the pavement through the heat, cold, scorching sun, rain and snow is probably fun. Yeah, right. But for those of us who view cardio merely as an activity required to keep our hearts healthy (or, more prosaically, to enable us to be able to eat even a relatively normal amount of food without ballooning to gargantuan dimensions), indoors is a wonderful option. And, living in a climate where the temperature on a summer’s day flirts with the 100 degree mark fairly regularly, I’ll take my cardio indoors, thank you very much.

So it’s only natural that, having no desire to run circles around my gym, or jump rope until I’m blue in the face, I’ve had to shed my Luddite views on training machinery and find a method of cardio training I can tolerate. And I have. It is called a step mill.

Now I can understand how ridiculous the concept of endlessly climbing stairs and getting nowhere may seem to the average person. But it really is no worse than, say, biking to nowhere on a stationary bike, or running to nowhere on a treadmill.  And if you’re going nowhere anyway, at least on a step mill, you have the best view of nowhere’s horizon… (in my gym, where there is always someone training for a show, that horizon can be quite an eyeful… but I digress…)

Apart from the view, though, there are a lot of benefits to climbing stairs. First of all, there is the cardio benefit. There is nothing like a half-hour of pulling your behind up flight after flight to get your heart pumping. In the process, you also burn a lot of calories. And you manage to do this without the high-velocity slamming of your joints that is unavoidable when running. There are other low-impact cardio activities, of course, including both biking and using the elliptical machines. Upright bikes, though, hurt my lower back. Recumbent bikes hurt my knee. And as for the elliptical… well, maybe it is my tendency toward motion-sickness, but the entire movement disorients me. I HATE elliptical trainers.

There is one other major benefit to climbing stairs, but it is neither an aerobic nor a calorie-burning benefit. It is really more of an aesthetic benefit; repeated climbing has a wonderful effect on the contours of the lower body, building muscle in much the same way as weight-training. It makes sense, of course, as a half hour on a step mill is somewhat akin to doing a half hour of step-ups, especially if you do not lean on the bars. And let me say this loudly and clearly: DO NOT LEAN ON THE BARS!!! It is all right to rest your hands lightly on the bars to maintain balance (it is a long fall from the top) but if you are pulling yourself up the stairs with your arms, or if you are resting on the machine, you are NOT actually climbing stairs, folks!

This is probably my number one complaint in the cardio area as a whole – on every piece of equipment, I see people hanging on for dear life, grasping the hand rails as if they were clinging to a life preserver. Here’s the thing – if you cannot walk on a treadmill without holding on, you are going too fast. Slow down until you find the speed and/or incline at which you can really work, and then make it your goal to improve that speed/incline. Walking, running, climbing stairs… all are activities we accomplish in real life without having to use our hands, and it should be that way when you train, too. Otherwise, you are just not getting the most out of your workout, and so, why bother?

But enough of my rant. Back to my favourite cardio equipment. All of the benefits afforded by the step mill occur precisely because a step mill workout is strenuous, which, in turn, is the reason so many people detest it. But for my money, it is the best low-impact cardio workout around. And anyone who is willing to start slowly, at a level that allows them to finish 10 to 15 minutes in a nice sweat, with a heart rate elevated to a good working level, will soon find that they are starting to enjoy this workout.  Because it turns out that this apparent climb to nowhere really is a climb to somewhere – a more sculpted physique, an ever-increasing level of endurance, a healthier heart and a feeling of great accomplishment.

In the gym, by myself:

Stepmill: Because I haven’t had access to a step mill in Canada, my endurance level has fallen off substantially over the past month and a half, and I have had to lower my normal levels from 10 – 12 to 7 – 8. So my goal is to try and increase the level over the next few weeks while I’m home.

Fatburner Level 8, 15 minutes, 1.3 miles. 220 calories, 20% fat, max H/R 170; avg H/R 160

Manual Level 7, 15 minutes, 1.3 miles. 206 calories, 25% fat, max H/R 171; avg H/R 155

Fatburner Level 8, 15 minutes, 1.3 miles. 221 calories, 20% fat, max H/R 171; avg H/R 160

Total: 45 minutes, 3.9 miles.

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