Do Portable Stair Steppers Help Circulation?

When you don't have the time or the energy to go to the gym, having a portable piece of exercise equipment can be ideal. That is, if your body is ready to use that machine at all. A portable stepper can help you improve your cardiovascular health and may help improve your circulation, but you'll need a little more information than that before you get to stepping.

  1. The Basics of Poor Circulation

    • A more specific term for poor circulation is peripheral arterial disease, often caused by a buildup of plaque in the blood vessels, blood clots or diabetes. Whatever the cause of the obstruction, the result is that blood can't flow as easily. To deal with the problem, doctors often recommend regular exercise. Not only will exercise help you lose weight, but it can also improve the strength of the muscles that take in and use oxygen, and can help open the blood vessels wider -- allowing for more blood flow.

    How Steppers Can Help

    • If you're currently sedentary, your doctor may recommend that you do very gentle exercise such as walking to start with. As you establish a base level of fitness, that portable stepper machine can definitely help you get in even better shape and continue improving your cardiovascular health. While they do have some muscle-building benefits, stepper machines are primarily used for aerobic conditioning.

    Gauging Exercise Intensity

    • When you do aerobic exercise, your lungs are going to take in more air, your heart is going to beat faster and you'll get the benefits of increased blood flow -- all things that can improve your circulation. To get the best results, however, you need to make sure you're exercising at an intensity that will actually do some good. The simplest way to do this is to use the "rate of perceived exertion" scale. If you feel like you're working really hard, you started sweating immediately and it's difficult for you to speak more than a few words, you're working out a vigorous intensity. If you can say a whole sentence, you start sweating after a few minutes and you're breathing harder but not out of breath, you're working out a moderate intensity. Both vigorous- and moderate-intensity exercise will reap cardiovascular benefits. If you're not sweating or breathing harder, you're probably not working hard enough to gain any cardiovascular benefits. On a stepper, you can get up to a vigorous or moderate intensity by increasing the resistance on the machine, stepping faster or a combination of the two.

    Precautions

    • If you think you have poor circulation, your first stop should be to a doctor who can help you discuss your treatment options. She may recommend that you start exercising -- but she may take issue with starting out with a stepper machine and recommend other exercises first. In some cases, she may advise you that obesity, medications or other conflicting issues will make the stepper less feasible than other types of exercise. If she gives you the OK, however, be sure to read your stepper's owner's manual for information on using the machine safely and effectively.