Even with your favorite song playing through your headphones, I know that cardio can be as boring as watching grass grow. But, it doesn’t have to be! The video below displays 8 various “moves” that will not only add some enjoyment to your workout on the stair-stepper, but make the time fly by quicker as well.
Begin with the stepper on a slow speed setting, like 3 or 4. Take your time warming up and getting into the groove. When you’re ready, pick it up to a speed of about 5 or 6 and try these groovy moves!
For the sake of an interesting and short YouTube video, I demonstrate these moves in 10 second intervals. To make the time during your climb pass swiftly, alternate these moves every minute. Once you’ve completed all 8 (or just the ones you prefer), bump the speed up by 1 degree and repeat.
1. Skip a step: wait for one step to pass before taking your next stride
2. Add leg lifts: While still skipping a step, alternate leg lifts and feel the burn in your glutes.
3. Cross overs: cross your right leg over your left, then left over right, and so on.
4. Side step left: stride up the moving stairs sideways, with your right shoulder facing the front of the machine.
5. Go backwards: Be careful. It’s okay to look down and check your footwork. Hold on to the rails to avoid disaster and embarrassment.
6. Side step right: stride up the moving stairs sideways, with your left shoulder facing the front of the machine.
7. Squat steps: feel the burn in your quads as you maintain an alternating lunge position as you step. Get low.
8. Big steps: drive your elbow into your knee and lift your leg as high as possible. Simultaneously flex your abdominal muscles. You will feel this one in your glutes as well.
Emily is in the program Mass Communications: Journalism and Media Studies at the University of South Florida in Saint Petersburg. She is also a writer for the technology based blog, the Gadgeteer, and in her free time she contributes to her school's newspaper, the Crows Nest. On the weekends, you might find her at the Saturday Morning Market working under the Mother Kombucha tent or blissfully rollerblading in Vinoy Park. Emily is a self-proclaimed fitness guru, and is psyched to merge her love for healthy living and writing together. Follow Emily on Instagram or contact her at emilykate1998@gmail.com.
Main Photo Credit: Maksym Poriechkin/shutterstock.com; Second Photo Credit: Dragon Images/shutterstock.com
