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Stair climbing imposes a simple mechanical demand: repeated concentric work against gravity, engaging multiple muscle groups and elevating cardiac output without requiring dedicated equipment or structured sessions.
That accessibility is part of why researchers at the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital put it at the center of a cardiovascular mortality analysis.
Their findings, published in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs and drawing on data from more than 480,000 people, show that stair climbers had a 39% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 24% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared with non-climbers.
What the data cover The research team, including Vassilios Vassiliou and Sophie Paddock from UEA's Norwich Medical School, started from a pool of nearly 1,900 studies before narrowing to nine with usable outcome data.
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