Picture the scene. You’ve challenged yourself to climb the stairs at the office, but three steps in and you’re already out of breath. 

By the time you make it to the top, that familiar sweat is already creeping onto your upper lip. And as you settle down at your desk, you’re forced to try and disguise your heavy breathing while giving one-word answers to your colleagues’ friendly questions.

We’ve all been there. In fact, it often feels like, no matter how fit you are, climbing the stairs will always be a challenge. I’ve gone from not being able to run a kilometre to competing in 10k races since I started running during lockdown, but I still get just as out of breath when I’m faced with the three flights of stairs up to the front door of my flat.

It’s a question that seems to be one of life’s great mysteries – so to set the record straight, we asked some personal trainers and fitness experts to give us the lowdown. 

Why does climbing stairs always feel so hard? Is getting out of breath on the way up a sign of poor fitness? And is it possible to get better? Here’s what they had to say.

If you’ve ever been concerned that your struggle to climb stairs was a sign of poor fitness, then you don’t need to worry. While higher fitness levels may make you better prepared to tackle a stair climb, it’s completely normal to get out of breath while climbing stairs because it’s an aerobic activity – eg the energy system it uses requires oxygen to function.

“When you climb stairs, you are using your leg muscles to propel your body upwards against gravity,” explains Aimee Pearce, a personal trainer. “This requires a lot of energy, which your body produces by burning oxygen. As you climb, your heart rate increases to pump more oxygenated blood to your muscles and this can lead to shortness of breath, especially if you’re not used to exercising.”

Climbing stairs also uses different muscles to those used during other activities such as walking or running, such as the glutes, core muscles and arm muscles. If you don’t work these muscles regularly – for example, during strength training – then chances are you’ll find climbing stairs harder than other forms of movement.  

The muscle fibres that are used during stair climbing also impact how hard it feels, explains healthy lifestyle coach and author Anne Iarchy. “Climbing stairs uses the fast-twitch muscle fibres that allow you to do quick and powerful movements,” she says. “But fast-twitch muscle fibres fatigue quickly, making [these movements] harder to maintain for long periods of time.”

Finally, the way we think about climbing stairs can also have an impact. Because it’s not ‘exercise’ in the traditional sense, we’re less likely to warm up before tackling a flight of stairs, so our muscles are cold and not ready to perform. And then there’s the fact that climbing stairs often follows a period of sedentary activity, so it’s normal to see your heart rate rise.

“I think the main reason that we get out of breath after climbing stairs is because we sit down for longer periods of time beforehand,” says Nicola Chan, a body confidence coach. “When we get up from sitting down, we will notice our heart rate increase.”

Pearce agrees. “Climbing stairs can be a sudden change in activity. If you are sitting or standing still for a long period of time and then suddenly start climbing stairs, your body may not be prepared for the sudden increase in activity, which can lead to shortness of breath.” 

As you might have already gathered from the previous question, the answer is no. Getting out of breath is a natural side effect of the energy system used when climbing stairs.

However, if you want to measure your fitness by climbing stairs, you’ll want to pay attention to what happens after you’ve reached the top, Chan says.

“It’s how quickly your heart rate comes down following exercise that is an indicator of your fitness levels, not that it goes up,” she explains. “If you’re climbing many stairs, how quickly your heart rate adapts to the continuous action will also be a factor.” 

You can also pay attention to how long you’re able to climb stairs for and the pace you can climb them at, as this can be a sign of good cardiovascular fitness.  

“As you get stronger and your aerobic fitness levels improve you will find that climbing stairs feels easier and you may be able to go up more stairs and increase the speed,” Pearce says. “In this way, climbing stairs is a good way to track improvements in your fitness levels.”

The important thing to remember, however, is that getting out of breath isn’t a bad sign. “Unless you train for stair climbing, you can be very fit but still get out of breath climbing stairs,” Iarchy points out. “The demand on your muscles and cardiovascular system is very different when running a marathon or swimming in a race, and being good at climbing stairs doesn’t mean you can run a marathon or lift heavy weights, either.

“Those are different skills which require a different combination of muscles, muscle fibres and require specific energy systems to kick in.” 

Want to increase the number of steps you can climb and the pace at which you can climb them? Try these simple tips from the experts.

1. Keep doing it

As painful as it may be, simply climbing stairs more regularly will help to improve your cardiovascular fitness and make you better and faster at it.

“If this is one of your fitness goals you just need to keep practising – it’s called sports-specific training,” Pearce says. “The more you do it, the fitter you will get and therefore the easier climbing stairs will get.

“For example, if you work in an office block with lots of stairs you could get the lift up and get off a floor before yours to start building up some fitness.”

2. Warm up

It may sound ridiculous, but if you want to challenge yourself to climb large sets of stairs, then warming up beforehand will ensure your muscles are ready to perform.

3. Strength train

If you’ve got weak glutes and core muscles, strengthening these areas will put you in better stead to use them when you’re climbing stairs.

“Due to our sedentary lifestyle, many people find it hard to activate their glutes and get them to work properly, so your muscles tire quickly,” Iarchy says. “Getting a good warm up, strengthening the required muscles and increasing your energy and oxygen supply will all help to improve your stair-climbing ability.”

4. Make it harder

Once you’re finding it a little easier to climb stairs, you can try challenging yourself to improve your abilities even more. Of course, this involves practice.

“You could make your practice harder by carrying a bag on your back once you get to a good level, or by practising stair drills,” Chan suggests. 

Images: Getty