And the steeper the steps, the tougher they’re going to should work, Hart says, since taking greater steps requires you to recruit a larger variety of muscle fibers. Like we talked about, your physique wants oxygen to provide your muscle tissue with vitality; the extra in play, the extra oxygen you’ll have to maintain that effort—therefore the elevated respiratory it’s possible you’ll discover when tackling stairs.

3. You’re tapping into several types of muscle fibers.

Talking of muscle fibers: While you’re doing simple cardio exercise, like strolling on even floor, your kind 1 fibers, or endurance-based slow-twitch ones, make it easier to alongside. However once you begin climbing stairs, you interact your kind 2 fibers—aka, your fast-twitch ones, which help highly effective actions like lifting heavy weights or sprinting.

This may result in the buildup of hydrogen ions and carbon dioxide in your muscle tissue and blood; you want oxygen to clear that out to assist cease fatigue from creeping in. This larger demand forces your physique to reply by rising your coronary heart price and respiratory price, which is why it’s possible you’ll arrive on the high of the staircase huffing and puffing, Hart explains.

In case your exercise routine is closely targeted within the endurance house—like steady-state operating, biking, strolling, or swimming, which trains kind 1 muscle fibers—your physique may not be as used to partaking kind 2 fibers as, says, somebody who lifts heavy weights or does explosive workouts like sprints or plyometrics. So when it comes time to make use of them to climb a flight of stairs, it’s going to be that rather more taxing in your physique.

4. The consequences of gravity are actual.

Stair climbing might appear simple because it’s primarily simply strolling, proper? Properly, the important thing distinction is gravity. While you’re strolling on flat floor, you’re propelling your physique ahead. However once you’re strolling up stairs, you’re shifting ahead and up. Most individuals take greater steps—and elevate their hips larger—to do that, which engages extra muscle fibers, says Hart. On the identical time, gravity is doing its greatest to drag you again down, and your muscle tissue should work time beyond regulation to surmount that resistance, as SELF beforehand defined.

All this will increase the quantity of labor your coronary heart must do, Dr. Lala explains. As Hart places it, your coronary heart price and respiratory price will then amp as much as provide your physique with the oxygen to finish that further work.

5. You haven’t really skilled for stair-climbing.

There’s a precept in train known as “specificity,” which mainly simply means your physique adapts to the very specific calls for you place on it, Hart explains. Which means if you wish to turn out to be a greater runner, you’ll want to run repeatedly; spending hours on different types of endurance train—like using your bike or logging laps within the pool—simply gained’t be as efficient.

Similar goes for stair climbing: Even if you happen to’re doing actions that prepare these kind 2 muscle fibers—like squats, deadlifts, and leg presses—these workouts are nonetheless not the precise motion and doubtless gained’t carry over in addition to really climbing stairs would, Hart says. So until your exercise or every day life contains ascending a complete bunch of steps, it’s no marvel tackling a staircase will really feel laborious and fatiguing when it’s a must to do it.

However there are some instances the place breathlessness can trace at an issue.

Basically, feeling drained and breathless on the high of a staircase could be completely regular and never an indication of something regarding. However there are just a few situations through which stair climbing fatigue does warrant a verify in along with your physician: