All the cardio machines available can make choosing between them harder. Find out what benefits a StairMaster offers and whether it is for you.
Keep in mind that if you don’t get your own StairMaster at home, using this machine does require an extra trip to the gym.
The extra time this requires could make more at-home-friendly workouts better in certain cases.
1. StairMasters can improve cardiovascular health
StairMasters, also known as step mills, will be a cardiovascular workout for most people. In simpler words, you will likely get out of breath before fatiguing your skeletal muscles.
Your cardiovascular system includes your heart, lungs, and blood vessels.
These are responsible for extracting oxygen from the air and moving this oxygen, nutrients, and waste to the right places in your body.
When you use a StairMaster, these processes and your cardiovascular system will have to work harder.
If you do this intensely enough (but not too intensely), you can strengthen your heart, lungs, and blood vessels over time.
This is definitely a benefit of StairMasters since having a strong cardiovascular system tends to reduce your risk of conditions in these areas (1, 2, 3).
2. StairMasters works muscles like your glutes
As mentioned, StairMasters are mostly a cardiovascular workout for most people.
At the same time, after a few minutes of using this machine, it will also become clear that you work a variety of muscles to some extent too.
Some of the muscles worked with the StairMaster are:
- Quadriceps (front thighs)
- Glutes (butt)
- Hamstrings (back thighs)
- Calves
- Hip flexors (front hips)
- To some extent core muscles like your abs, obliques, and erector spinae
If you can do more than 50 steps on each leg without your muscles fatiguing, StairMasters are likely not challenging enough to build a lot of muscle in your situation.
That being said, working these muscles with StairMasters can still improve their endurance, make the muscles healthier, and slow down degradation.
3. StairMasters can help you lose weight
Losing weight requires you to get and stay in a situation where you are using up more energy than is coming in from the foods in your diet.
That means StairMasters can help you lose weight since workouts on them burn more calories (energy) than most standard daily activities.
You can even roughly estimate how many calories the StairMaster burns.
The average person will burn around 266 to 457+ calories per 30 minutes of using the StairMaster at a moderate pace.
While there are also even better gym machines for weight loss, it is fair to say that StairMasters tend to be effective for this purpose too.
You do want to keep in mind that lifestyle details like what you eat will influence your weight loss results a lot. It is possible to use the StairMaster a lot without losing weight.
4. Using a StairMaster can improve your mood
Your mood and the thoughts going through your head can feel like very mental-only things. However, your physical habits influence these too in a variety of ways.
For example, doing workouts like using a StairMaster tends to make it so your body releases more “feel-good hormones” called endorphins (4, 5, 6).
Something else you should not underestimate is how much StairMaster workouts can reduce your risk of a variety of negative conditions.
Since these would leave you in a negative mental state too, this is another way Stairmasters can benefit your mood.
Lastly, on top of these things, you will likely also feel proud that you stayed consistent with the workout routine you created for yourself and did something challenging that benefits you in the long term.
5. StairMasters offer a low-impact workout
Activities like running may be better than StairMasters for certain goals like burning calories or improving cardiovascular health but you also need to keep other details in mind.
More specifically, high-impact workouts like running can be hard on your knees, ankles, and lower back. Especially if you are not used to exercising and/or have a few extra pounds to lose.
Getting injured would reduce the amount of time you can work out a lot.
Because of that, it can sometimes be smarter to go for low-impact exercise equipment options like the StairMaster.
On this machine, the shocks your body experience are somewhat smaller. In turn, your injury risk should be a good amount lower too.
Keep in mind that the low-impact aspect of StairMaster also leads to less strengthening potential.
Over time, you can still consider workouts like running to strengthen for example your bones to a larger extent.
6. StairMasters are relatively easy to use
There are many exercises and sports where you have to go through an initial learning period to do the activity optimally and with a low injury risk.
This can be a downside since it takes longer to get the full health benefits of these workouts.
Additionally, some people just want simple exercises in their workout routine.
If these things apply to you, you may really like that StairMasters are relatively easy to use.
Most people are already used to climbing stairs so besides a little getting used to the balance aspect and keeping an upright position you are likely good to go.
7. StairMasters add variety to your cardio routine
Many people find it challenging to stick to the exercise plan they created.
One of the potential reasons for this is that many people find their routines too one-sided over time.
Luckily, there are also still ways to make things more interesting again.
One of these things is using cardio machines like the StairMaster that are different from what you usually do.
Additionally, if you have a gym subscription, you can likely give many of the StairMaster alternatives a try too.
Trying out all these different cardio machines will also help you discover what options you like the most. This is another thing that can make staying consistent with your workouts easier.
