Ever heard of stairs

Silly question, I know...

Due to my major aversion to public displays of working out a.k.a gyms I have to tap into my creative brain to find other means of working out. Like the apartment complex stairs.

42 glorious flights of hardly ever used stairs. Why wouldn't I want to go there?! It's dimly lit, concrete and metal with poor air flow. Sounds like a place for me!!

No, I did not use all 42 flights. I focused on 6 flights only. (I'm all about moderation and not utterly killing myself). Working out, I felt compelled, compelled I tell you!,  to share all the things you can do on stairs.

Brace yourself...it's a doozy!!

Naturally, there's running up them; 1 at a time, 2 at a time, 3 if you're ambitious (I'm not ambitious) on the toes, on the heels (careful on that one), flat footed, squatted down...oooh you'll feel the burn on that one. Or just plain walking up.
OR
you can go sideways taking 2 at a time. (Holy cow, let me tell you that one burns. I don't recommend having that be the LAST thing you do because you'll only be able to do 1 just to prove it's possible for a post..yes, I HAD to test it out before I mentioned it...I'm weak ok!?)

THEN
there's also push ups. At an incline OR decline (can't do the decline...a little too tough for this girl)

Tricep dips. Absolutely great!

NOW we get into the squats. Side squats to be exact. At first I did them with 1 foot on the landing 1 on the 2nd stair. Full set but didn't like it. So dropped it down to the 1st stair and felt it a lot better. It burned in all the right places.

Of course there's the calf raises. Toes pointed forward, toes pointed out and one at a time. I could only do the 1st two and a very small number. My feet can't handle them, it's too painful.

Which is really frustrating because I've been told I have big calves...non defined big calves....not to mention being told I have cankles. Not to exclude my dr. telling me when I was 25 that I'll have cankles when I get older. This is how that went...

Me: my ankle swells up sometimes right here, is there anything you or I can do to reduce the fluid and swelling.
Dr.: No, there's nothing.
Me: So I can't ever get rid of this and have it go back to normal?
Dr.: No it will always be like that. And probably collect more fluid over time.
Me: So I'll have fat ankles when I'm older???
Dr.: Yes you will have fat ankles when you're older.
Me: staring at him at this moment in shock and sadness.

I sure love that Dr. P....
anyhoo...it's apparently a fact of life that I will have cankles and non shapely calves...*sigh* especially more so since I can't do anything that involves a calf workout thanks to my feet. thanks feet!

But let's get back to the stairs...((almost done, promise!))

There's also abs! Yep abs on stairs. Go to the top and lift those fat calved legs up...ok sorry, dwelling here, ahem sniff sniff...all better.
And do either bicycle or bringing the legs in for the crunch.

It was really hard for me to do these and stay focused. The darn emergency lights in the stairwell buzzed and every time I dipped back I would hear the buzz and it got very annoying. Every time. bzz..bzz..bzz..bzz. 15 times hearing this, I couldn't take it and stopped. I DID do another set and had to sing in my head to drown out the bzz sound.

I'm sure there are a ton more things you can do on the stairs (oh don't forget stretching on them too) but that's all I did.

What other things can be done on the stairs? I'd love to do them if you have any ideas of your own.

If you stuck around till this moment, thanks...I figure I'll be driving people away on this randomly boring post HOWEVER my point to all this is simply saying you don't need a gym to workout. If you have stairs in your home or apt. complex or even the bleachers at the high school (which is where I prefer to go) you can do all these and get a full body workout and the cardio...holy moly you will get your cardio in!


*Random Tip: Never ever ever ever shave while burnt. You will scream, cry, suck air through your teeth and cringe. And then have it all repeated once the hot shower water makes contact with your now offended skin.

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