A sudden change in breathing—like dyspnea, or shortness of breath, for no apparent reason—can cause concern. While being out of breath when walking up stairs may catch you off guard too, it's normal to feel breathless after exerting yourself.
However, other factors, like various medical conditions and the environment, may be responsible for your breathlessness. There are also ways to increase your endurance and make climbing stairs easier, like aerobic and lower body exercises. Read on to learn more.
If you take a flight of stairs, breathlessness can result from hard work from your heart and lungs. Ascending stairs immediately affects your heart and lung endurance.
Your lungs help get oxygen to your blood while your heart pumps oxygenated blood throughout your body. Physical activity demands more of these two organs. Being active requires more oxygen transport to the muscles.
Shortness of breath can result from using a lot of energy too. People need a lot of energy to climb stairs. Going up a flight of stairs makes them move their body weight with their leg muscles.
Researchers have also found that continuously climbing stairs requires over nine times the energy needed for sitting. Even slow stair climbing requires more energy compared to sitting.
Is It Normal To Feel Out of Breath Using Stairs?
It's normal to get winded when you use the stairs because the body needs oxygen and energy during physical activity. How much breath people lose and how quickly they run out of breath depends on the individual.
For example, deconditioning, or being out of shape, can be responsible for a person losing their breath. Also, some people may huff and puff with more prolonged or more intense bouts of physical activity; others may lose their breath with mild exercise.
In general, breathlessness can be a result of your organs lacking oxygen. Specific health conditions may be a cause of feeling winded, such as:
- Air passage blockage in the mouth, nose, or throat
- Allergies
- Anxiety or panic attacks
- Chest wall compression
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Heart problems such as arrhythmia or heart failure
- High blood pressure in the lungs, known as pulmonary hypertension
- Pneumonia
The quality of your environment—like dusty environments or high altitudes—may also make you feel out of breath or have difficulty breathing.
How To Make Climbing Stairs Easier
Working on your conditioning can make it easier to navigate stairs. Here are three strategies to help.
1) Take the Stairs More
If you want to get better at stairs, there's a simple solution: walk up them more often. The more accustomed your body becomes, the better you'll become at this skill.
Climbing the stairs more often can increase the efficiency of your muscles so that, eventually, they'll need less oxygen to move and produce less carbon dioxide. You won't have to inhale and exhale quite as much.
If you don't encounter stairs often but want to feel good walking up them when you do, consider using equipment like a StairMaster.
2) Add Intervals
"This is the best way to make those incremental jumps in your VO2 max, a measure of how well your body uses oxygen," Frank Baptiste, founder of Frankly Fitness in New York City,told Health. "Ultimately, how efficient you are in taking in oxygen and using it will allow you to do something as intense as stairs for longer.
Baptiste recommended going fast up one flight, then slowing down on the next. "Or take two steps at a time, and then just one step on each leg after that."
3) Strengthen Your Legs
Strengthening your lower body can be beneficial because walking up steps takes muscle power. Climbing the stairs involves multiple muscles and triple extension—moves involving the hip, knee, and ankle. To power up your legs, try these three moves from Baptiste:
Step ups. This exercise builds strength and endurance. Here's how to do it:
- Hold a 5-pound dumbbell in each hand (adjust the weight according to your comfort level).
- Step onto a low bench or stair with your right foot.
- Bring up your left foot until you are fully standing.
- Step back down, right foot first.
Baptiste suggested three to four sets of 10 to 15 reps per leg.
Squats. This exercise increases lower-body muscular endurance. Here's how to do it:
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- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, chest high, abs drawn in, and hands clasped in front of your chest or straight out with palms down.
- Sit nice and deep, bringing your hips to just below parallel.
- Push into your heels to rise to a full-standing position.
Baptiste recommended three to four sets of intervals lasting 30 to 45 seconds.
Toe taps. This exercise develops cardiovascular endurance. Here's how to do it:
- Stand with a ball (medicine, soccer, or rubber playground ball) or a low box in front of you.
- Tap your right toe on the ball or box.
- Jump up as you switch feet in the air, landing with the left toe on the ball or box.
- Continue alternating feet as fast as you can.
Baptiste suggested performing four sets where you work for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds of rest. Repeat two to three times.
It's possible to improve the length of time you can stay active without quickly losing your breath. You can use other endurance exercises—also called aerobic exercises—to increase your breathing and heart rates, such as:
- Ballroom dancing
- Biking
- Brisk walking
- Hiking
- Horseback riding
- Nordic walking
- Rowing
- Running
- Skiing
- Swimming laps
Individuals with limited mobility due to medical conditions or injuries may also be able to engage in aerobic exercises like:
- Aquatic therapy
- Hand-crank bicycling
- Seated volleyball
- Water aerobics
- Wheeling in a wheelchair
- Wheelchair basketball, football, softball, and tennis
If you have limited mobility, talk with a physical therapist or certified personal trainer about exercises that may suit you before starting a workout regimen. They can also provide you with modifications so you can safely exercise.
When To See a Healthcare Provider
Though feeling out of breath walking up stairs can be expected, there are times when you need to talk with a healthcare provider. Consult a provider for:
- Breathing problems that happen suddenly, interfere with breathing or talking, or become worse
- Chest discomfort, pain, or pressures
- Shortness of breath that keeps you awake or happens after slight activity, during rest or sleep, or with simple talking
- Stopped breathing
- Throat tightness or a barking cough
- Wheezing
Even if you consider yourself "in shape," it's normal to feel out of breath after climbing stairs. That's because you're transitioning from a resting state to a high-intensity exercise quickly, and your body needs more oxygen to deliver to your muscles (hence why you start breathing heavily).
Depending on how conditioned your body is for climbing stairs, you might tire quickly or take longer before you start huffing and puffing. Either way, three strategies can help get your body in stair-climbing shape: walking up steps more often, adding intervals to stair-climbing exercises, and strengthening your leg muscles.
