Exercise and fitness: energy burn upstairs vs downstairs

Self-tutoring about a standby workout: the tutor checks the comparison between ascending and descending stairs.

Climbing stairs is one of my favourite workouts. It takes no set-up or equipment, so one can just start it spontaneously. One seems usually to be within reach of a flight of stairs.

One might wonder about the exertion going up vs going down a set of stairs. Given the dynamics of body movement, it seems that would have to be determined by measurement rather than theory.

Apparently, going up stairs might have exertion of about 8.6 mets, while going down, about 2.9 mets. (One met is the energy draw at rest.)

Interesting, eh?

Source:

National Library of Medicine

healthline.com