stairs down or elevator?

I'm trying to take the stairs more often now, for extra exercise, but I've heard that going down stairs is bad for your knees. I will definitely continue going up stairs, because it feels like a good workout, but down doesn't feel like as much of one. Is it worth walking down stairs instead of taking the elevator, in terms of burning calories, or am I doing more damage to my knees than is made up by the exercise?

Thu. Sep 1, 12:18pm

Up is worse, I think

As someone with bad knees, I think that going up stairs puts more pressure on your knees, but walking up and down a couple of times a day shouldn't be a problem.

Thursday, September 1, 2005, 12:35 PM

my orthopedist (sp?) told me that shin splints are caused by running downhill. He had me set the treadmill to a very slight upwards incline (he also said that on many treadmills the '0' incline setting is actually slightly downhill), and my shin splints have been fine ever since. (I didn't have them very bad.) We didn't talk specifically about stairs, but it might be the same thing.

And it probably depends on how old you are, how good your knees are, how many stairs we're talking here, etc. I'd say talk to your doctor.

Friday, September 2, 2005, 10:05 AM

Running or walking down stairs is NOT bad for your knees

Recent evidence suggests that running may actually shield somewhat against arthritis, in part because the knee develops a kind of motion groove. A group of engineers and doctors at Stanford published a study in the February issue of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery that showed that by moving and loading your knee joint, as you do when walking or running, you “condition” your cartilage to the load. It grows accustomed to those particular movements. You can run for miles, decades, a lifetime, without harming it. But if this exquisite balance is disturbed, usually by an injury, the loading mechanisms shift, the moving parts of the knee are no longer in their accustomed alignment and a “degenerative pathway” seems to open. The cartilage, like an unbalanced tire, wears away. Pain, tissue disintegration and, eventually, arthritis can follow.

For more info go to:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/11/phys-ed-can-running-actually-help-your-knees/?em&apage=2

Tuesday, September 15, 2009, 8:11 PM

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