How Should You Work Out on the Stairmaster?

A Stairmaster provides you with an intense cardio and muscle workout. It raises your heart rate to calorie- and fat-burning levels, while simultaneously building up endurance. It has an advantage over a treadmill in that there is little negative impact on your knees and almost no risk for joint and bone damage. Interval training is a common approach to exercise and there are several ways to approach interval workouts on a Stairmaster.

Instructions

    • 1

      Begin with a five-minute warmup. Raise your distance to about six levels higher than your usual comfortable level. Your LED console will tell you what level you are on, as well as your heart rate, calories burned and how many floors you have climbed. Climb at this distance for about two minutes, then drop to your comfort level again. Repeat this pattern 10 times before a five-minute cool down back at your warmup level.

    • 2

      Climb in two-minute intervals for half an hour after your five-minute warm up. Raise your level to six, climb for two minutes and then take it up a notch to an eight. At the 15-minute point, change your high level to a 10 and your lower level to an eight. Repeat this more intense pattern until you have been working for 30 minutes and then proceed to your cool down, which can be anywhere from two to five minutes.

    • 3

      Engage in a High Intensity Internal Training (HIIT) workout. Crank your speed, resistance and distance up to as high as you can stand it after warming up. Get your legs burning and keep that pace for as long as you can before dropping down to your normal intensity level for a 90-second recovery and go all out again. Complete as many as many of these sprints as you can before finishing your workout at your normal comfort level.