The Fitness Stepper - What Are The Benefits?
Fitness stepper benefits are very impressive for those who consistently use them. But, it does not require a scientific study using double blind protocols to tell you that merely owning one, or being a member of a gym that owns some, is not what gives you the benefits. You have to use it, consistently, through the passage of time, to get awesome, guaranteed results.
A fitness stepper, or stair stepper is a device made for working out that mimics, to one degree or another, the motion of climbing stairs. If you have ever climbed several flights of stairs without stopping to rest between floors, you have some idea of the potential work our you can get from a fitness stepper.
As you know, your heart rate as well as your breathing rate increases from running up even a single flight of stairs. That is the start of a cardiovascular workout of your heart and lungs. It is fantastic to do that for your health, and a bonus is that it burns off stored fat from your body. But, a flight or two of stairs will not do the job. You need about a half hour session to get real results.
Most types of exercises that allow you to get a cardiovascular workout, come with the price of high impact upon your joints, bones, muscles & ligaments. Running provides a great heart and lungs workout, but the list of common running injuries is very long, and painful; just to read. A stepper provides a low impact movement that eliminates most of the injuries, runners risk.
The list of muscles that are affected by a fitness stepper workout is impressive, to put it mildly. They include the two hip flexors, that are attached to the femur bone; and the three gluteal muscles, more commonly referred to as, the buttocks.
Other muscles affected by a stepper workout, include; the calves, which are both comprised of two muscles. The quadraceps, are targeted as well. They are four muscles at the top part of the thigh, starting above the knee. Lastly, there are the hamstrings, which are three muscles, on the underside of thighs.
So how many calories can a stepper help you burn? If your stepper is set at the most vigorous setting, you could get fitness stepper benefits burning as many as 107 calories per twenty five pounds of body weight, per hour session. A 200 pound guy could work off about 856 calories in an hour, and a 100 pound gal would burn 428 calories.