Stairs
Here is another of those less than well known methods of losing weight that seems to get past people even when it is staring them in the face.
The boring old staircase that connects your home's ground floor to its first floor (assuming you live in a house that is not just on one level) is a silent, static and often invisible work out apparatus just waiting to be used correctly to provide its user with some astounding results!
It often surprises people to hear that just using a regular stair case really can boost their level of fitness, health and help reduce their weight if necessary.
Needless to say, if you were to just find yourself standing at the base of a stair way and spent some time just gazing at them will not make very much difference to you, other than being a smidgeon better for you than idling the time away stretched out on the couch dumbly gawping at the TV.
Using the Stairs to Get in Shape
However, when you get yourself into a state of motion and action, then run to the top of that flight of stairs, then all the way down again, you start a series of events that will assist you not just to lose weight and get back in shape, but to build up your levels of fitness and firm the muscles in the lower body.
Of course, doing it just the once won't make a whole load of difference to you. So you ought to do this over several times and as many as you can handle.
Firstly you really should endeavor to avoid the temptation to overdo it, especially in the early stages. The sensible thing to do is to get yourself climbing those steps as swiftly as you are able to until you get yourself feeling tired, out of breath and sweating, then stop.
Record the number of times you ran up and down so you have something to work with. Each day, make it your target to match your previous day's target then do it one additional time to build up your performance, stamina and strength.
Exactly like any other variety of exercise, you should always start off slow and increase the number of times you do it steadily, day by day. This may help to put a stop to muscle damage and will also help get you familiar with doing the exercise slowly but surely.
Then you'll find that you have the ability to add to the number of times you are able to do it until you get to the stage where you can ascend and descend many times without getting out of breath.
Cardio Workout in the Home
This is a cardio-vascular exercise in nature, which suggests it increases your heart rate and causes your muscles to work harder. This helps your body to use up more calories as you expend energy, eventually burning fat when the supply of blood sugar runs out and your muscles continue to demand fuel (see our article on walking for weight loss for more details on this).
Also, I should point out you need to be aware that it is important to be eating a diet that's low in simple carbohydrates and definitely low in sugar (including artificial sweeteners).
Your muscles become stronger and become toned, which in the end gives you a more slender, fitter figure. You'll feel stronger, fitter and healthier into the bargain.
So you can see this really is a useful form of exercise and you don't need any fancy gym apparatus or equipment to do it. Any old flight of stairs will do as long as it has maybe 10-12 or more steps, although this is not critical, it just makes you work harder the more stairs you have to climb, which is better for you and your weight loss effort.
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