Brief, Intense Intermittent Stair Climbing Is A Practical, Time-Efficient Method To Improve Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Sprint Interval Training (SIT), involving brief intermittent bursts of very intense exercise, has been touted as a time-efficient alternative to traditional endurance training for improving cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and clinical markers of health. Most SIT protocols, such as Wingate-based cycling, have been studied in a laboratory setting and require specialized equipment, which is impractical for many individuals. Stair climbing may be a more suitable and accessible alternative to laboratory-based SIT. While established as an effective form of exercise to enhance CRF, the minimum effective “dose” of stair climbing remains unknown. PURPOSE: To determine whether brief, intense intermittent stair climbing improves CRF. METHODS: Twelve sedentary but otherwise healthy women (age = 26±11 y; BMI = 23.6±3.0 kg/m2) trained 3 d/wk for 6 wk. Each 10-min training session involved a 2-min warm up, 3x20-s bouts of intense stair climbing interspersed with 2 min of recovery, and a 3-min cool-down. Training was performed using the stairwell of a 6-storey campus building. Subjects were instructed to climb stairs as fast as safely possible. Recovery periods involved descending the stairs slowly and walking on flat ground. RESULTS: Participants climbed 59±4 stairs (height climbed = 11.4±0.8 m) during each bout. Mean power output was 365±40, 354±38 and 337±35 W for the three bouts, with corresponding ratings of perceived exertion scores of 12±1, 14±2, and 16±2, respectively. Training elicited 81±4% of maximum heart rate (HRmax) on average over the 10-min session, 86±3% HRmax during the 3x20-s bouts, and peak HR was 94±3% of HRmax. Peak oxygen uptake (VO2 peak) increased by 13% from 28.9±3.7 to 32.4±3.6 mL O2•kg-1•min-1 after training (p<0.01). Absolute VO2 peak similarly increased from 1.8±0.2 to 2.0±0.3 mL O2•min-1 (p<0.01) as body mass was unchanged after training (62.2±9.5 vs. 62.6±9.6 kg, p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Brief, intense intermittent bursts of stair climbing, involving only 3 min of “all-out” exercise within a 30-min time commitment per week increased CRF by ~1 metabolic equivalent over 6 wk. This change is similar to that previously reported after laboratory-based SIT protocols of similar duration, and traditional endurance training involving a much higher exercise volume and time commitment.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".