Stair Climbing For the Older Adult

There are many people who can be benefit from stair climbing. One of the populations that has not been talked about is the older adults, or seniors.

Why Stair Climbing for the Older Adult?

Many seniors have trouble with their hip musculature as they age. This is because as we age generally speaking we are less and less active. We sit around more, and are bodies become more "fragile." The senior may become more prone to illness or colds which will in turn make them less active.

As an adult who is aging this is not a good sign. The less active you are the heavier the senior may become leading to more pressure on the hip, knee and ankle joint. This additional pressure puts more stress on the overall musculature of the lower body, especially the hip region.

This "snowball effect" leads to many hip surgeries. Its unfortunate but the easiest way to actually remedy this problem is simply to use your own bodyweight. No weights are needed, no fancy machines, just you and a set of stairs.

A caveat please, if you already have hip problems please seek the guidance of a health professional before beginning any stair climbing program.

Why Stair Climbing?

Stair climbing is a natural human movement that human beings have done since the beginning of time. We all have climbed a flight of stairs in our lives no matter how little activity we have done.

The great thing about stair climbing is that it is a "natural movement" meaning it causes no injury to the human body. In fact if done properly under the supervision of a health professional, someone with hip issues should be able to strengthen the hip joint and surrounding musculature with ease.

The key is to start of very slowly climbing stairs. We will be blogging about starting a stair climbing program for seniors shortly.

There are many examples of older stair climbers who have done very well and maintain excellent hip and cardiovascular health well into their 80's and 90's.

One example of an "Older Adult" Stair Climber is Anthony Simanavicius who is 53 years young!

Anthony is a great example of someone who began climbing stairs not to long ago and made terrific gains!

Twice a year he competes in the CN Tower Climb in Toronto, Ontario Canada. His time this year was 13 minutes and 58 seconds, beating many climbers who are 20 or 30 years younger then he is! The average time to climb the CN Tower is 20-30 minutes for males and 25-35 minutes for females.

Of course you do not have to have a goal of completing the CN Tower in 14 minutes or even a goal to climb the CN Tower, but that would be great!

A goal for the senior is to start of slow and perhaps just climb a flight a day. Thats it! All you have to do is start!

For more information on stair climbing please visit

www.stairclimbcanada.com

or phone 1-877-51-CLIMB

In True Health,

Trevor Folgering
Founder
The Canada StairClimbing Association