Beyond utility, stairs can provide an excellent foundation for exercises, increasing your strength and your ability to use them safely.
One of the oldest known staircases in the world is in the Austrian village of Hallstatt. There, in the depths of an ancient salt mine, lies a staircase almost 3,400 years old. I mention this by way of noting that staircases have a long, long history, and have always been closely associated with humanity, providing excellent utility and plenty of opportunities to exercise.
Yes, exercise. While exercising on stairs
strengthens and makes us more sure-footed on said stairs, it also provides a carryover effect that can make us stronger and more functional throughout the day.
In the following routine, we’ll use only one step, but we'll use it a lot. I always tell my patients that doing something once is utilitarian, but doing it 30 times is therapeutic. There is truth in this humor, though, and stairs can be surprisingly effective at increasing strength.
The five exercises that follow are well tolerated by my patients, but I recommend that you consult with your medical provider to ensure that they are right for you.
5 Stepping Exercises to Maximize Strength and Balance
Practice tip: Advice from your humble occupational therapist: Warming your knees with these exercises can help decrease pain and potentially avoid injury. If you have a painful knee on one side, avoid overusing it on steps by stepping up with the strong leg for each step and using your hands on railings to assist in the movement.1. Step Ups
A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, as does this exercise. While moving through multiple stairs is highly beneficial, this simple movement can also provide surprising results and teach you the proper movement mechanics for climbing up multiple steps.Step 1: Stand in front of a step or staircase.
Step 2: Step up onto the stair with your right foot and briefly pause.
Step 3: Lean forward and then slowly push up with your right leg until your left foot can come onto the step as well, taking at least one second to complete the movement. The idea is to load the right leg muscle quickly but smoothly and come up onto the step without bouncing or jumping.
Step 4: Reverse the movement pattern by stepping down with your left leg while slowly lowering down with your right leg. Repeat the movement with your left leg.
Step 5: Stepping up and back down counts as 1 repetition. Try to perform 3 sets of 15 steps with each leg. You can experiment with stepping up and down with the same leg or alternating legs. I prefer a same-side pattern because it provides more intensity to the stepping leg.
Increase the challenge: You can increase sets and repetitions to make the exercise more challenging. Also, try lifting up and lowering back down with the upper leg without placing the second foot on the step before conducing the regular movement, in a pump once, step once pattern.
Why I like it: Step ups provide all of the traditional benefits of stepping exercises, providing a great workout for your quadriceps and gluteal muscles.
2. Lateral Step Up
The lateral step up has the same basic mechanics as the front-facing step up but gives some love to the gluteus medius, which is involved in moving the legs laterally out from the body.
Step 1: Stand side-facing to a step, and step onto the stair with your right foot, keeping room for the left foot. From here, the movement is similar to the front step.
Step 2: Slowly rise on your right leg until you can place your left foot on the step, and then slowly lower it back down and return your right leg to the floor. Repeat on the left side.
Step 3: Try to perform 3 sets of 15 repetitions per leg.
Why I like it: The side step increases focus on strengthening the gluteus medius muscles, which can help increase your skill and ease with lateral stepping, and helps to decrease falls.
Increase the challenge: As with front steps, you can increase sets and repetitions to make it more challenging. Also, try lifting up and lowering back down with the upper leg without placing the second foot on the step before conducing the regular movement, in a pump once, step once pattern.
3. Stair Step Downs
We’ve practiced two exercises that have you stepping up onto a step, but this exercise will focus on stepping down from one. It’s not that simple, however. For this exercise, we’ll start on the step and face in the direction of going down instead of up.
Step 1: Stand on the bottom step of a staircase, facing downward.
Step 2: Step down with your left foot, taking three full seconds to move down. As soon as you step down, move back up onto the step again, taking three full seconds. After this, switch feet and perform the movement again, this time stepping down with the right foot.
Step 3: Stepping down and back up counts as 1 repetition. Try to perform 3 sets of 15 repetitions per leg, understanding that this can be quite a workout at first.
Why I like it: Stair step-downs are excellent for powering up your muscles using a heavy top-down eccentric movement emphasis, which can increase your sure-footedness when descending stairs. They’re also a great overall strengthening exercise.
Increase the challenge: Increasing sets and repetitions can provide extra challenge, but I find the pump once, step once approach particularly challenging with this exercise.
4. Lateral Step Up/Knee Up
This exercise builds on the step up exercise and places extra emphasis on your hip flexors. Instead of simply stepping up with the trailing leg, we move all the way into heavy hip flexion.
Step 1: Stand in front of a step or staircase, facing to the side.
Step 2: Laterally step up onto the stair with your right foot and perform a high knee lift with your left leg. Move slowly, no bouncing or hopping, and move the left leg smoothly between the floor and the high knee lift.
Step 3: Reverse the movement, coming down slowly to allow your right leg muscles to work hard. Repeat the movement with your left leg.
Step 4: Lifting one leg up from the floor then returning back down counts as 1 repetition. Try to perform 3 sets of 15 steps with each leg, alternating sides with each set.
Increase the challenge: In addition to increasing the steps and repetitions to help increase difficulty, this particular exercise can also benefit from increased speed. Perform them faster (while staying safe) to increase balance and aerobic components.
Why I like it: This movement emphasizes hip flexors, which can help avoid toe catches or tripping when walking or climbing stairs.
5. Calf Raises
The classic calf raise focuses on the gastrocnemius and soleus groups of your lower leg—in addition to other, related muscle groups—and gives you more assertive push off abilities with your feet.
Step 1: Stand on the lowest step of a staircase (or yoga step) with your toes on the step and your heels fully off. Slowly let your heels sink down, letting the muscles stretch.
Step 2: From here, slowly raise onto your tiptoes and hold for 1 second before lowering back down into the starting position.
Step 3: Rising up and lowering back down counts as 1 repetition. Try to perform 3 sets of 15 repetitions.
Increase the challenge: You can increase the sets and reps to increase your challenge, but be mindful of overdoing it at first, given that this exercise can potentially leave your calves sore at first.
Why I like it: Strengthening your gastrocnemius and soleus muscles allows you to climb stairs by pushing off with your toes instead of doing so flat-footed, increasing your overall feelings of control and mobility. It’s important to maintain this ability, especially as we age.
Combined, these exercises can help increase your prowess and safety on steps, as well as decrease knee pain when ascending and descending steps.
I hope you find the routine useful, and suggest performing them at least three times per week.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here. 
