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From personal experience, everyone knows how difficult it is to go up the stairs and how easy it is to go down through two steps. However, there is an opposite opinion: supposedly more energy is spent on the descent. We decided to check how things really are.

ABOUT Benefits walking along staircase For Slimming or maintaining Forms write numerous sites About healthy image life. Reported Even what exactly So way at the dawn of his career I achieved The ideal figure of Madonna. It is notedthat a variety of groups work on the stairs while walking on the stairs muscles: calf, front and rear surface of the thigh, buttocks, press and bark. Some sites Recommend Only the rise, others Markthat the descent is no less useful - not even indicatethat from the point of view, energy consumption is more profitable to descend than to rise.

Walking up the stairs both up and down, indeed, an energy -intensive effect. IN modern models Fitness scrapsThe tracking activity is often found “Passed Proleti”. Each step overcame burns About 0.17 kcal. American Council for Exercise Allows Count how many calories will be spent when walking the stairs depending on the weight of the person and the time of the exercise. For example, if a person weighing 50 kg devot Walking the stairs for half an hour, then 199 kcal will consume, and this is only a little less than Contained In 100 g of sealing without additives. For ComparisonsHalf an hour of the game of football or tennis will require less calories from it (174 and 149 kcal, respectively).

The logical justification why the descent can be no less useful than the rise, in fact, exists. The fact is that walking down is an example of the so -called eccentric exercises in which muscles involved in activity lengthen. In contrast, they have concentric exercises in which the muscles are reduced. For example, when working out biceps with dumbbells, the bending of the hand is a concentric contraction of the muscle, and extension is eccentric. Unlike walking up and down the stairs, few will say that it is much easier to unbend a hand from dumbbells than to bend. Association of Fitness Professional Recommends To include eccentric exercises in regular training, noting that they optimize an increase in the power, strength and mass of muscles, muscle length during the development of effort, as well as coordination of movements.

If we consider the movement up or down the stairs from the point of view of physics, then the spent energy consumption can be divided into three categories:

an increase in the kinetic energy of the body as a whole and its individual parts;
an increase in the potential energy of the body in the gravitational field of the Earth;
An increase in internal energy, which will ultimately go into thermal energy and will go to heating the surrounding space.

The conditions of the problem under consideration will be the following: a person of medium weight and medium physical training moves at the usual speed (does not run) along the stairs with ordinary steps in height. The rise of one step 20 cm high takes a little more than 2 seconds, given that there are still many steps ahead and you need to measure your forces. Then the increase in kinetic energy will be about 1 kcal, the increase in potential energy is already about 30 kcal, and the full energy consumption is 170 kcal. It turns out that the human body is a machine with a relatively low efficiency. In order to raise the body to a certain height, it is necessary to spend about five times more energy as a whole than if not a person with his musculoskeletal system, but, for example, a rocket engine, was used for lifting.

When lifting or descent in the legs and body, many different muscles work that help to hold the body vertically. It is also necessary to take into account the energy spent on the brain, since the rise and descent require concentration. All this together will ultimately lead to the release of thermal energy, by measuring which you can determine how much energy requires the human body in order to rise or go down the stairs. Such completely calorimetric measurements do not exist. However It is knownthat the descent process is characterized by lower metabolic and cardiorespirator needs than the rise.

As a result, energy costs (namely the difference between the condition on the first step and the latter) will be more precisely when lifting, that is, sensations do not deceive us. However, this will be true only if the energy consumption is evaluated immediately after reaching the last step. It is impossible to stop the energy exchange process in the body without killing. It is logical that no one has ever conducted such an experiment in public, but laboratory mice is another matter. Belgian scientists from the University of Liezha Divided Three groups in three groups: the first ran up the treadmill, the second - down, and the third was not exposed to any effect. Immediately after physical exercises lasting from 75 to 135 minutes, scientists killed animals and studied the fabric of their quadriceps. In the muscles of the mice from the run -down group, a higher concentration of substances responsible for oxidation processes was found. It turns out that these mice remained alive, the process of redistribution of energy, launched by physical activity, would continue even at rest.

From the point of view of biophysics / physiology, human energy consumption is customary to divide otherwise:

The main exchange (the amount of energy that is necessary in order to maintain the processes of life: breathing, blood circulation, thermoregulation, etc.);
a specific-dynamic effect of food substances (energy costs for the transformation of the received food into nutrients);
Work allowance (energy costs for physical and mental activity).

If you set the goal of evaluating the energy obtained from food, then the final point at which the measurement will be carried out cannot be the moment when the person ate the last piece, since biochemical reactions associated with the body receiving this or that food can be postponed for several hours in time after the meal. The same with physical exercises. Activity triggers the chain of biochemical reactions that continue when it ends. Physical activity increases such an important parameter as energy consumption at rest (it is the main exchange, that is, the first component of the common energy exchange), and this bonus remains for a long time after training. Therefore, any walking on the stairs can also be evaluated from the point of view of changing the entire energy exchange, that is, taking into account the processes launched by this walk - they were shown by scientists from Belgium, only biological death stops.

Greek researchers Sicked A group of female volunteers who have been performed for a week either eccentric or concentric exercises. In the first group, energy consumption at rest increased by 12% for at least the next 48 hours, and oxidation of fats by 13% (oxidation of fats along with carbohydrate oxidation is one of the main processes that provide the body with energy). Energy consumption at rest is an important part of the entire daily energy exchange, it accounts for from 60% to 75% of all energy costs. From the point of view of biochemistry, physical activity triggers the exchange of muscle protein, activates protease and hydrolase, and provokes the restoration of muscle myofibrillar damage. Since eccentric exercises cause more microdamines to the muscles due to an increase in the developed force and mechanical destruction of the relations of actin-myosin, than concentric, then an increase in energy consumption at rest higher. It turns out that, although at the time of the completion of the descent or climbing the stairs, the energy consumption will have to rise more, it will cost precisely the descent in total, since the increased energy consumption at rest will last for some more time. And if before choosing a descent or climbing the stairs is the goal of increasing the final energy consumption, then it is better to choose the descent. At the same time, immediately after overcoming a certain number of stairwell marches, the energy consumption will be more of the energy cost, of course, on the rise.

Group of Scientists from University Edith Cowen (Australia) and National Taiwanese Pedagogical University decided Finally clarify that it is more healthy for health - go down the stairs or climb. In 2017, they gained a group of 30 women from the age of 60, having excess weight. 12 weeks, half of the volunteers descended from the sixth floor on foot, and climbed the elevator. The second group was less lucky: on the sixth floor they walked up the stairs, and went down on the elevator. In the first week, it was necessary to rise or go down only twice, but gradually the load was increased. Scientists analyzed a number of health parameters: cholesterol and blood insulin, blood pressure, bone density of bone tissue, and the maximum isometric power of the knee contraction. Speaking about a group of launching stairs, the leading researcher Kazunori Nosak noted: “They had a significantly lower blood sugar and insulin levels, the indicators of the glucose tolerance tolerance were improved, the content of triglycerides and low density lipoproteins (poor cholesterol) was reduced, and high density lipoproteins (good cholesterol) increased.” All this indicated that the descent generally improved the body and reduced the risk of diabetes. The group of rising ones also improved their health indicators, but not so significantly. In general, scientists noted that it is more useful to improve health and physical form.

Tony Kay, professor of biomechanics from the University of Northgemton, Explains mechanics of eccentric exercises. A smaller amount of muscle fibers accounts for a greater effect of force, which leads to micro -aggregates of these muscles. After training, the body consumes strength to regenerate these microdamages. Thus, despite the fact that during the rise itself more calories are burned, a total descent on the stairs and then the restoration of the body is a more energy -consuming process. According to Kei’s calculations, the acceleration of metabolism after a 30-minute eccentric training can last up to 72 hours, all this time the body will actively consume calories, even at rest.

In addition to advantages for physical health, the descent can improve the mental state. Casunori nosak notedthat during the descent, the brain experiences a more serious load, since it is better to control the muscles. PresumablyThis can reduce the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Nosako hypothesis is not built on empty place: exists A lot evidence that physical activity Slow down speed progression these diseases.

Thus, their own feelings from walking up the stairs mislead us. In fact, the descent is more energy -consuming for the body and is generally more healthy for health than an ascent. The descent is especially good for the prevention of diabetes and a decrease in poor cholesterol, which can protect against a number of diseases.

Image on the cover: Photo by Form Pxhere

Update dated January 29, 2025. A fragment was added to the text about the two classifications of energy consumption (from the point of view of physics and biophysics / physiology) and, accordingly, reasoning, how the movement along the stairs changes energy consumption. For each of these sciences (physicists and biophysics / physiology), the answer is different. In addition, in the text we mixed the answer to the question of energy consumption with the answer to the question of the usefulness of both processes (rise and descent) for a person. Therefore, we changed the verdict to “this is not exactly” and advise readers to draw our conclusions only by reading the text completely. The previous version can be found by link.