Have you gotten tired of doing your cardio workouts on a treadmill? Do you enjoy hiking, and want to find a better way to train for climbing hills? Do you need to improve your balance and lower body strength? Maybe you should consider a stepmill for your workouts!
Stepmills have been around for over 25 years, and the best known brand of stepmills is Stairmaster (available at Fitness 4 Home Superstore, along with other steppers and stepmill brands). And, if you’re curious as to what you do on a stepmill, think of a stepmill as a combination of a treadmill, and a flight of stairs.
One of the best cardio workouts you can do is climbing sitars. It’s an extremely effective and efficient way to get a great cardio workout, while also building strength in your quads, glues, and hamstring – as well as your core.
Here are a number of benefits that a stepmilll can provide:
- Walking up a stepmill engages your body’s largest muscle groups – great for increasing your metabolism for fat burning.
- You’re forced to engage your core muscles with each step, improving core strength and endurance.
- You engage your glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves – and high reps will help build lean muscle.
- Walking up the stairs on a stepmill also raises your heart rate quickly, and keeps it there for your entire workout.
- You’re forced to concentrate on keeping and improving your balance.
- Best of all, your cardio workouts on a stairmill are a much lower impact exercise than a typical treadmill workout.
The efficiency you gain during a stepmill workout means that a 20 minute stepmill workout has roughly the same level of effectiveness as a 30 minute treadmill workout. You get better results, while taking less time out of your day. And, if you’re climbing at 2 mph on a stairmill – that’s comparable to running at 12 mph on a treadmill! So, as you’re moving slower compared to running, you’re less likely to get hurt, without the wear and tear that running can bring.
Unlike climbing stairs, you can keep going – you don’t have to “turn around” at the top of a flight of stairs, as the rotating steps on a stepmill allow you to keep climbing continually throughout your workout. There is much lower impact on a stepmill. Why? When you climb stairs, you’re going up. At the top of a flight of stairs, you have to descend. That puts extra stress on your joints, muscles, and connective tissues – stress you don’t have going uphill.
Want to know more about the benefits of a stepmill? Stop into any of Fitness 4 Home Superstore’s three Phoenix area locations today!
