Arredondo 1

Jose Luis Arredondo

Instructor McCann

English 1302 – 201

9 February 2024

Stepping Back and Researching Stairs

Introduction

Studies relating to physical activity suggest greatly that continuous bouts of exercise can

help to increase health and decrease the physical needs that many tasks can take throughout the

day. According to the American Heart Association, the average adult needs at least 150 minutes

of moderate to vigorous intense physical activity per week ( AHA 2024). However, most people

do not reach this requirement, and are often unfit due to a lack of physical activity. As a result,

daily tasks like walking from place to place, picking up heavy objects, and doing simple chores

can be very demanding if a person does not exercise. One very particular daily activity that is

very difficult and one that a lot of people complain about is climbing stairs. When going up a

flight of stairs one will usually feel winded or extremely tired by the end of it. Even researchers

comment on its difficulty as a study conducted by Anna C. Whittaker called “Daily stair

climbing is associated with decreased risk for the metabolic syndrome” even states that stair

climbing is “a vigorous lifestyle activity.” Like the article by Anna C. Whittaker et al., another

article named “Do stair climbing exercise ‘snacks’ improve cardiorespiratory fitness?” illustrates

stair climbing’s difficulty even more, as due to its intensity, this research study even uses it as a

form of challenging sprint interval training (Jenkins et al. 681). With how these articles represent

stair climbing as a rigorous activity, even to the point where one of these articles uses stair

climbing as a form of specialized training due to its difficulty, what could possibly help in
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decreasing the physical demands of stair climbing? This experiment will address this question,

and so the methods used will match the aggression of stair climbing by showing how intense and

vigorous exercise can be used in order to make stair climbing overall an easier task.

Methods Used for Research

In this experiment, the researcher will be exercising for a period of five days. During

each concurrent day the researcher will then go up five flights of stairs and document the

experience, heart rate, and possible experimental variables which may have influenced the

results. This also includes an extra day to check the participants’ heart rate when climbing stairs

before any exercise has been done or what will be named as the pre-workout day. For the

physical activity for days 1, 3, and 5 the participant will run 3 miles in a park, and afterward will

engage in a cool down of walking for five minutes. For days 2 and 4 the participant will engage

in a calisthenics routine consisting of 4 sets which contain 2-minute planks, 10 pushups, 30

crunches, and 25 lunges for each leg. After the workout session for the day the participant will

wait 8 hours before going and walking up five flights of stairs at their local library. After the

participant walks up the flights of stairs their heart rate will be measured using a bpm tapping

website, wherein the participant will calculate their heart rate by tapping the rhythm of their heart

beats into the site. The expectation for this experiment is that as the researcher, who is the

participant, exercises the physical needs for going up the stairs will become less and less as the

experiment progresses. The participant has knowledge of and has been engaged in physical

fitness before the experiment was conducted. While the experiment will be conducted over a

short period of time, and will present results gained from unprofessional tools, the researcher

believes that the experiment will still produce reliable results.

Results of the Experiment

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(Really Repetitive change it up with quotes) For the pre-workout day the participant

completed the stair climbing routine and went up five flights of stairs and marked a heart rate of

142 bpm for the day. After running the 3 miles for day 1 the participant went along with their day

until 8 hours had passed. Afterwards, the stair climbing routine was completed for day 1 and the

participants heart rate read slightly lower than the heart rate for the pre-workout day, marked at

130 bpm. After the calisthenics session for day 2 the participant continued with their day until 8

hours had passed. The participant then completed the stair climbing routine for day 2 and the

participants’ heart rate read slightly lower than the heart rate for the day before at 128 bpm. After

running the 3 miles for day 3 the participant continued with their day and waited 8 hours. After

the stair climbing routine for day 3 the participants’ heart rate read slightly lower than the heart

rate for day 2 at 126 bpm. After the participant completed the calisthenics routine for day 4 they

went along and continued with their day. After the stair climbing routine for day 4 the

participants’ heart rate read slightly lower than the heart rate for the day before at 125 bpm. After

running the 3 miles for day 5 the participants again continued with their day. After the stair

climbing routine for day 5 the participants’ heart rate read slightly lower than the heart rate for

day 4 at 125 bpm. Commented [JA1]: Was there anything else you noticed?
The information here, more importantly the way you wrote
it, is very repetitive.
Analysis of the Research

After the stair-climbing routine for the pre-workout day the participant’s heart rate read

142 bpm. On the first day when the participant engaged in the stair-climbing routine the

participants heart rate read lower than the heart rate read for the pre-workout day at 130 bpm.

This trend would continue on for the rest of the experiment and the participants’ heart rate would

consistently decrease from 130 to 128 to 126 to 125. According to the Nation Library of

Medicine, as one becomes fitter and fitter the physical needs required for various day to day
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tasks should naturally decrease because of consistent physical activity. Usually, the measurement

for this natural decrease in physical needs comes from observing whether the heart rates of those

who are exercising are decreasing (Reimers 1). This shows that the physical need for climbing

stairs is starting to lower because of regular fitness as the participant’s heart rate slightly

decreases from each day to the next. Comparing the results found in this research study to other

studies helps to show the strong correlation between performing regular physical activity and

overall physical fitness. In her article, Anna C. Whittaker et al. explains that “brief bursts of

physical activity, such as stair climbing, may be important in maintaining health and wellbeing”

(1). In addition, Madison Jenkins et al. support the same ideas saying, “The improvements in

cycling oxygen peak occurred despite the training being performed as stair climbing, suggesting

that overall exercise tolerance and capacity was improved” (683). In turn, this helps to show the Commented [JA2]: Again, this quote doesn’t seem to fit
well
strong relationship between regular exercise and an increase in physical activity. Commented [JA3R2]: Say it in your own words simplify
it
Conclusion

As a result of this experiment, it could be determined that the decrease in the participants

heart rate during the stair climbing routines from each day to the other marks a decrease in

physical needs because of regular physical activity according to Madison Jenkins et al. (683).

This is important because it helps to show that while stair-climbing can be a difficult task, which

may made even more difficult by external factors, the difficulty of stair-climbing can be lowered

with regular physical activity (Whittaker et al. 2). In this experiment there were many variables

which may have influenced the results of the experiment, such as the website used to find the

participant’s heart rate, and the lack of multiple participants. Given these variables, the results

should not be interpreted as accurate. As a result, a more accurate and professionally produced

experiment should be employed here in order to actually help to prove the main clause of this
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experiment, that is whether or not stair-climbing can be made easier. With these results, it is

important that more is done with this experiment, as with the words from Whittaker et al. and

Jenkins et al. it can be shown that stair-climbing can be an extremely difficult task for certain

people with certain disorders and diseases. So, in turn, a more professional experiment should be

conducted as it can help encourage further discussion and help to show whether or not a solution

can be found for these people, in order to make stair-climbing a less difficult and labor-intensive

task for them.

Works Cited
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Anna C. Whittaker et al. “Daily stair climbing is associated with decreased risk for the metabolic

syndrome” BMC Public Health, vol. 21, no. 923, May 2021, pp. 1-2,

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10965-9.

American Heart Association Recommendations for Physical Activity in Adults and Kids.

American Heart Association, 19 Jan 2024, https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-

living/fitness/fitness-basics/aha-recs-for-physical-activity-in-adults. Accessed 30 Jan

2024.

Anne K. Reimers et al. “Effects of Exercise on the Resting Heart Rate: A Systematic Review and

Meta-Analysis of Interventional Studies” Journal of Clinical Medicine, vol. 7, no. 12,

December 2018, pp. 1-1, https://www.mdpi.com/374102.

E. Madison Jenkins et al. “Do stair climbing exercise “snacks” improve cardiorespiratory

fitness?” Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, vol. 44, no. 2, February 2024,

pp. 681-682, https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/10.1139/apnm-2018-0675.