Arredondo 1

Jose Luis Arredondo

Instructor McCann

English 1302 – 201

9 February 2024

Stepping Back and Researching Stairs 2.0

Introduction

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

help to increase overall cardiovascular 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 often 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 such a rigorous activity, even to the

point where one of these articles uses stair climbing as a form of specialized training due to that
 Arredondo 2

difficulty, what could possibly help in 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 exercise can be used in order to make stair climbing an easier task

overall.

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 called 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 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 also 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.

 Arredondo 3

Results of the Experiment

For the pre-workout day the participant completed the stair climbing routine and went up

the five flights of stairs and marked a heart rate of 142 bpm for the day. For the first day of the

experiment the participant ran for three miles, once 8 hours had passed the participant performed

the stair climbing routine at a heart rate of 130 bpm. The participant noted that due to the three-

mile run, they felt it was a lot easier to go upstairs compared to when they had for the pre-

workout day. For day 2 the participant engaged in the calisthenics for the day and when it was

time to complete the stair climbing routine for day 2 they did so with a heart rate of 128 bpm..

When climbing the stairs and engaging in calisthenics for day 2, the participant said that it was

more difficult compared to day 1 as they’re legs became sore from running three miles the day

before. 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. For day 4 the participant completed the calisthenics

routine. After completing 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. The participant noted that both

the calisthenics and the stair climbing routine were a lot easier to perform compared to day 2 as

the muscle soreness had gone away. After running the three 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. . While waiting 8 hours the

participants did their daily activities and noticed that walking felt a lot lighter to perform than

compared to before the experiment. In addition, they also felt that when climbing the stairs, they

didn’t feel as tired at the end of it as they did in the previous days.

Analysis of the Research

 Arredondo 4

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. According to Reimer from the Nation Library of Medicine, as one

becomes fitter, the physical needs required for various day to day tasks should naturally decrease

because of consistent physical activity (1). As such, the measurement for this natural decrease in

physical needs comes from observing whether the heart rate of those who are exercising are

decreasing or not. This helps to show that the physical need for climbing stairs is starting to

lower, as due to regular fitness, the participant’s heart rate slightly decreases from each day to the

next. Comparing the results found in this research study to another study helps to show the

strong correlation between performing regular physical activity and overall physical fitness. In

her article, Whittaker et al. explains that “brief bursts of physical activity, may be important in

maintaining health and wellbeing” (1). As such, exercise is evidently important in increasing

aerobic fitness according to Whittaker, as this increase in aerobic fitness will eventually lead to

the physical demands that many tasks require decreasing.

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 next 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 be 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
 Arredondo 5

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 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 throughout the articles by Whittaker et al.

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

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 a solution can be

found for these people to make stair-climbing a less difficult and labor-intensive task for them.
 Arredondo 6

Works Cited

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.