This will be somewhat technical, so feel free to take your time. If you experience knee or lower back pain when you climb stairs, the following information could be very helpful for you. The purpose of this post is to break down the technique of stair-climbing in order to promote harmonious and efficient movement patterns, built on a foundation of good leverage. In terms of what moves your body from one step to the next, there are two main actions performed in stair climbing: hip extension (where you pull the thigh back and down, away from your torso) and knee extension (where you straighten the leg at the knee joint). Of course, when you move the other leg forwards to the next step, you are flexing at the knee and the hip, but the actions that actually move your body up the staircase are extension and extension. You straighten the knee, and straighten the hip, and this moves your body through space. It is easy not to think in these terms, because as we move forward we think of the leg that is moving forward, but of course it is the leg that remains on the ground that propels our body forwards and in this case upwards, and it is in the action of this leg that we see either efficient or inefficient movement patterns expressed. For the sake of simplicity, you can think of it this way: extension occurs when a joint opens, and flexion occurs when it closes. For whatever reason, many of us rely more on knee extension than deriving power from the hips and buttocks, which is to our detriment. Many of us have weak buttocks, relative to our thigh muscles, but as to why this is? There are many theories, ranging from too much sitting, to too much imbalanced sports-playing, to tightness in the hip flexors, to anxiety, to haste, to the tendency we have to forget about the parts of our bodies that aren’t on the front of us. Out of sight, out of mind, perhaps? One may feel too heavy to climb stairs, or too unfit when confronted with a tall staircase, but it is not actually an issue of size, though it may be one of fitness and function. We have a tendency to think that if we were lighter, things would be easier – but relative weakness and joint dysfunction can occur at any weight. Athletes talk about your power-to-weight ratio, which may be good or poor; to improve this you can focus either on getting stronger or lighter, and I would always choose strength. Strength is a relatively predictable and reliable consequence of structured training, whereas lightness is always at best a maybe. And if you focus on improving strength, function and leverage, you don’t need to just wait and hope that losing weight will fix all your problems, you can sink your teeth into something tangible - you can work on improving your movement patterns, body awareness and muscular strength. This gives you something to do while you are training. Training then becomes something, it’s not just random movement time, and step-ups become a more obviously practical exercise. ![]() If you think about stair-climbing, it is remarkably common for us humans to just pitch the torso forwards at the hips, shortening the hip flexors, and after placing our foot on the next step, we basically extend the knee to press our body onwards and upwards. As pictured to the left, the hip joint moves very little, and so it becomes a knee-dominant movement pattern. Relative to the hip, the knee is a very small joint, and if you can imagine practicing a one legged, full bodyweight knee extension – it’s actually a very difficult and problematic exercise, even if your thigh muscles are strong. Also, as indicated by the arrow, when you are leaning forward, force from the interaction between your thigh and the ground drives up into the lower back, as opposed to dissipating through the body. Climbing stairs in this way can lead to excessive pressure in the knees and lower back, which can manifest as pain. If, however, you climb stairs with a hip-dominant movement pattern, you bear the weight of the body through two joints, and the primary mover becomes the large and muscular hip joint, as opposed to the relatively unstable knee joint. ![]() You will observe in this picture that the back remains vertical. This means the forces from the thigh don’t just press into the lower back, they dissipate through the torso. Also, you’ll notice that the shin is more vertical, and this reduces stress in the knee joint and the demand placed on the front-thigh muscles, the quadriceps. Ultimately, you are relying more on the muscles of the buttocks and hamstrings, which can provide you with significantly more power, even if at first, you feel weaker because you are relying on muscles that aren’t used to working like this. This exercise has now become a hip-dominant movement pattern. Even though the knee is still working, because of the vertical position of the shin and the increased range of motion of the hip, the buttocks will power your movement much more than they did before, taking pressure away from the knee and lower back. And when this movement is powered by the larger buttocks, and the knee acts as a kind of assistant-joint, it means the weight of your body is borne fairly over two joints, with the larger one taking on most of the work. For the purposes of this essay, the ankle is not terribly relevant, other than to mention that our tendency with our knee-dominant movement patterns is to place only the ball of the foot on the next step, which is only a small portion of the foot, and does not provide us with as much leverage or stability as we can get if we place the entire foot on the step and apply force through the heel. Of course there might not be enough room for your entire foot, but if the foot is flat, and you are pressing through the whole thing, you increase stability, and therefore your capacity to apply leverage. So – to reduce stress and pain in the knee, the best way to climb stairs is this – keep your body upright, try not to lean forward, place your entire foot on the next step, apply force through the heel, and focus on pulling your heel backwards behind your body as you straighten your leg to move your body up the staircase. Focusing on driving the heel down also helps to engage the buttocks. As you do so, set your intention to extend the hip before extending the knee, if you can. In reality, the joints move almost simultaneously, but focusing more on the hip will take pressure away from the knee. If you can, hold onto the hand-rail. Another dynamic that keeps us leaning forwards while climbing stairs is the fear of falling backwards. Do not allow yourself to fall backwards down a staircase! Be patient, and as safe as you can. As you fatigue, as the muscles of the buttocks fatigue, the old movement pattern will start to re-emerge. Which is totally okay, this is simply what happens when muscles get fatigued - you automatically rely on other muscles. This is why we train - to build up strength, power and endurance over time, so that we can become better at moving. For those of you who would like a slightly deeper degree of detail – when you place your foot on the step in front of you, try not to let your knee collapse inwards. If your knee collapses inwards, this is because of a lack of strength through the hip in terms of external rotation, which also comes down to the muscles of the buttocks. If you can keep the knee pointing forwards, aligned with the toes, or even a little out to the side, this will help to improve stability of the knee and further activate the muscles of the buttocks. The same is true with squatting – if you experience knee pain, keeping weight on your heels and pulling the knees away from each other, rather than allowing them to collapse inwards, is likely to help minimise discomfort by increasing the participation of the buttocks in completing the exercise. Initially, you might not be able to climb stairs this way. If your hips/buttocks are weak, this will certainly be more fatiguing than the movement pattern you are used to – which you have been practicing for years. But over time, if you can strengthen your hip and hamstring muscles, you will find that applying leverage through the buttocks and hip makes for a much stronger action, and you become more resistant to fatigue, because you are not relying solely on the muscles of your thigh to get you up to the next step. You are distributing that workload more evenly through your body. If you feel the need to work on the strength of your buttocks by themselves, or if you are simply curious, it is worthwhile working hip lift/glute bridge exercises into your training sessions. They will help to improve strength and muscular awareness in your buttocks and hips. Over time, you can challenge yourself to develop more strength by attempting the same stair-climbing technique on higher steps or benches. The higher the step, the more you are required to take your hip through a greater range of motion, and the more you learn to active – and derive power from – the buttocks. Also, you can practice step-up exercises holding onto weights, or carrying a heavy backpack, or something of the like. In my experience training a variety of individuals mostly in the wide age range of 40 to 70, this is a very effective fix for many cases of knee pain that occur while ascending stairs. It will not accommodate for all causes of knee pain, nor will it start to fix your problems right away, but as your buttocks strengthen, and as you become more familiar with the movement, you will give your body a chance to adapt and recover. Of course, for many people, descending stairs is actually more difficult. But whatever your pain or dysfunction might be, it is worth investigating these movements thoroughly, while bringing your awareness and patience to the task at hand. If you have any questions, please post them below and I will try to respond in a helpful manner. -- Update! February 2017. I have made a companion video to this post, if you have found this to be a helpful read, and yet you remain curious, please check it out here.
53 Comments
Demandra
4/4/2014 09:54:20 am
I don't have any questions, but I want to thank you for this reminder: "One may feel too heavy to climb stairs, or too unfit when confronted with a tall staircase, but it is not actually an issue of size, though it may be one of fitness and function. We have a tendency to think that if we were lighter, things would be easier – but relative weakness and joint dysfunction can occur at any weight."
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Chris
4/5/2014 10:18:49 am
Thanks Demandra. It's easy to be hyper-aware of our obstacles, and forget what we really can work on, and what we are already capable of doing. And I appreciate your comment!
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Margaret
2/4/2015 02:23:55 am
Thanks for posting this. I will try going up the stairs with a straight body verses leaning over. I can't tell if it is my knees failing me or another part of my body. But I cannot climb the 14 stairs to get into my house like a normal person. I have lived here for 30 yrs, so climbing isn't something new. I know I have one knee that needs to be replaced, but the other is loosing strength. There is no pain involved, just lack of strength.
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Chris
2/4/2015 07:46:51 pm
That's tough. Thank you for commenting though! If a knee needs replacement, strengthening the leg muscles might help to a point, but there are many different reasons why a knee might need replacing. Some aspects of knee health can be improved by exercising your muscles and some can't - but at any rate, improving or correcting movement patterns should help to remove excessive or unnecessary pressure from the knees, and that's certainly something. I hope for you that climbing with a hip-dominant movement pattern is helpful, even if initially it's challenging in a new way.
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brendan
8/4/2015 04:54:27 am
Actually by being more upright you are creating a longer lever arm for the knee and more stress at the knee. It is better to have a slight lean forward just as long as your head doesn't go past the toes.
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Chris
8/5/2015 10:20:34 am
I see your point! The emphasis here, is in trying to make the movement pattern more hip-dominant, but of course there are many tiny tweaks that a person might make to help improve leverage and reduce knee stress where they can. Mostly people seem to lean forward too far, and if you cue someone to stand up straight, there'll often still be a slight forward lean, maybe just because people are aware they don't want to fall backwards. But thinking about keeping your head alignment in relation to the toes would be a good cue point as well.
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alfa
10/16/2015 01:51:58 am
You are right. We can try by ourselves, if we flex more hip by leaning forward, the more we flex our hip, that's hip-dominant. We can feel the difference between lean forward position and vertical back position, if the knee felt tight and pain, that means quadricep is working instead of gluteus maximus(the major extensor muscle during hip extension)
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Darlene Kouma
11/14/2015 07:21:49 pm
I was diagnosed through an MRI about 3 yrs ago as having the right hamstring not attached and the right quadricep not attached, partial tear of gluteus minimus and gluteus medius on the right side. Nothing bothered me until after going up and down stairs during a move, I couldn't get up the stairs. my right leg just wouldn't move. Now I go up with my left leg (which also has no hamstring attached!) and pull up my right leg to meet it. feel like a 3 yr. old! would like to know how to get back to walking normally up the steps. also I walk crooked? on the right side and my hip crackles and makes a lot of noise when I walk. Anything I can do for it? Thanks!
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Chris
11/15/2015 10:49:14 pm
Hi Darlene,
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Pamela
1/17/2016 10:58:35 am
I have problems to pull myself up when climbing stains
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Chris
1/17/2016 02:56:21 pm
Hi Pamela,
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Debra Rappo
2/21/2016 03:05:23 pm
Hi, I do not have a knee or hip problem, but cannot walk up the stairs with my left leg. What would you suggest? I do not experience pain, just I guess a weakness, Any advice would be deeply appreciated.
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Chris
2/22/2016 09:26:23 pm
The essence of strength training is in repetition of exercises that you can do, but which challenge you enough to be useful. If it's weakness, any exercises that strengthen your leg may be helpful, the key is identifying ones that challenge you a little but not too much, and practicing them until you reach the point where you are able to progress to a more difficult exercise. To this end, you may find laying hip lifts/glute bridges helpful, possibly squats, or maybe even lunges. Over time, you would increase number of repetitions or difficulty of the exercise. And you'd want to give yourself enough time to experience a change, if you train consistently with leg-strengthening exercises for a period of several weeks or a few months, that's enough time that - if they're going to work for you - you'll notice a positive difference by then. It's hard to coach these things online though. Always remember, the feeling you're seeking is for the muscles to be working, not to feel strain in the joints. This can be difficult to determine sometimes, but if you feel the work not in the knee, but above the knee in the thigh, that's a good sign. Likewise with the hip, if you feel the pressure in the muscles of your buttocks, that's good - but if it's a deeper pressure, that may not be good, depending on you.
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I am so glad I found this article and the replies. It's a bit comforting to know others have the same issue. I suffered an injury which left me with pinched nerves on both sides of my lower back. I too lean very far forward and pull myself up with the rail. I go to the gym and work with a trainer, acupuncture and chiropractic sessions. The lower back pain is better, but I still cannot walk up stairs normally, I will try to concentrate on standing straight when climbing the stairs. It is very frustrating to have to deal with limitations and turn down invitations to participate in fun social activities. Thank you for the article.
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Chri
12/28/2016 04:54:49 pm
Hi Sharon,
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Victoria
11/26/2016 07:15:03 pm
Please consider making a video going up and down stairs also. Excellent article. I would very much appreciate seeing more of the movements and hearing you explain it while the movement are happening.
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Chris
12/28/2016 04:57:25 pm
Hi Victoria! That is an excellent idea, and I will be making one in the not too distant future, I hope. Thank you for your suggestion, and I'm sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. All the best!
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Chris
2/19/2017 09:10:09 pm
Hi Victoria! It took me a while longer than anticipated, but I made a companion video to this post. I hope it's helpful:
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Victoria
2/26/2017 05:44:24 pm
Thank you for your time spent creating this very thorough and extremely iinformative video. I hope others find it as helpful as I did. I especially want to thank you for demonstrating the exercises. The visual at the end was absolutely Brilliant and really proves your point about proper body mechanics. Sincere thanks.
Chris
2/27/2017 01:56:22 pm
Thank you for your kind words! It was fun making the video, and I'm very happy you found it useful. Sometimes I'm not sure if what I say is going to make sense to an imagined audience, but I usually like to try to offer more information rather than less, and only so much can be expressed in words so I'm very glad the footage helps!
Duan
12/13/2016 05:00:53 pm
Great article and response to comments. A tiny niggling meniscus problem gives me pain and I initially searched what is the best way to walk up.stairs-heel or toe and I came to your article. I'm going to try the straighter back technique and improve my buttocks. I'm a hiker so I'd like to know about a fail safe way so my knee doesn't go mid mountain and if it does how to walk down. I remember one time the pain was that bad I actually cried. I wouldn't want that again. Do you recommend ibuprofen by the way as preventative on hikes. I don't use painkillers normally. Thanks in advance
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Chris
12/28/2016 05:02:56 pm
Hi Duan,
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Rob
1/5/2017 09:26:00 am
I second the vote in favor of a video! Also - do you have tips for heading DOWN the steps, or are the major issues all in the ascent?
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Chris
2/19/2017 09:11:44 pm
Hi Rob!
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Gail Pickering
3/22/2017 01:39:35 am
I am 63. Work full time sitting at a checkout. Play badminton 3 times a week (love the movement in badminton). But climbing stairs to go on my break is starting to be a challenge. I can not wait to build up my muscle and try this technique. Thank you.😘
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Chris
8/11/2017 05:02:49 pm
Thank you for commenting, Gail! I hope my suggestions have been useful. If you imagine the stair climb is training, it's probably never going to be as fun as badminton, but maybe that'll help to reframe the activity and keep it from feeling arduous or like a chore.
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Chris
8/11/2017 04:49:11 pm
Hi! Generally the toes and knee should be pointing forwards, or at least in the same direction. Technically the knee aligns with the ankle, and there are still many joints in the foot, so it can be the case that the foot and knee aren't quite in the same alignment if the foot bones are doing their own thing, but that's pretty rare. At any rate, the alignment of the entire lower limb comes from the hip so if the hip is turned out or not, the foot/ankle and the knee should match.
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Chris
8/11/2017 04:56:49 pm
Sorry, for the sake of clarity, think of it as a single leg step up. The emphasis should be on driving the leading leg down, not on bounding up by springing off the foot that's trailing behind you. That will direct most of the work into the hip of the leading leg and should minimise strain on the calf/achilles.
ann
10/12/2017 10:49:35 am
In August, walked 1hr every day and immediately came home to do my 10 laps. I am 76, and very active. I am mentioning this because after all this walking (which i am used to doing anyway) I ache everywhere, can't put my right foot up a step without hurting, i had back pain off and on, I have like nerve pain in different areas around my foot sometimes, i am hurting in my buttocks. Yikes. what is happening?
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Chris
10/12/2017 01:00:38 pm
I suspect some sort of injury or irritation to the lower back/spine or the sacrum. Maybe a pinched nerve or something like that, at any rate if you notice the sensation lower down the body (the leg/hip), and you treat the leg/hip, but the problem is higher up the strem so-to-speak, the treatment will be ineffective. You need to see a medical practitioner, hopefully someone who can give you a better diagnosis that "you just overdid it, be carefulin future", because that's always a useless thing to both say and hear. I hope you can get to see someone helpful. Maybe an Osteopath if convenient? Those kinds of symptoms can be incredibly unpleasant.
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Hello Chris,
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Chris
10/25/2017 01:20:35 pm
Hi Lauren,
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Stacey
11/9/2017 12:48:45 am
Thanks so much for the great post! I am not able to access the companion video...besides for walking sideways or more slowly, is there any other suggestions you may have on how to make this more comfortable and stable for our body. Also...this is more of a side point but related to stair climbing...my joints often 'crack' when I ascend stairs..not painful but awfully loud! Should I worry about this or is there anything to do?
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Chris
12/4/2017 04:07:52 pm
I wouldn't worry about cracking in and of itself, but if possible it could be good to get someone to check your alignment. If your joints are in bad positions that could cause problems later on. The old vage "later on"! Cracking may or may not be meaningful, and people often disagree on this point.
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Debra
12/4/2017 04:21:48 am
Thank you for your post. I have a question: I have a significant other who has two herniated lower back lumbar discs and stenosis. He has not been exercising. He is a construction supervisor but finds it difficult to just supervise, so at times he does work which requires lifting, pushing, pulling, and climbing. Should he be climbing several flights of stairs to access a roof on a regular basis? Is he damaging his back by doing so even though he says he had no pain? Thank you for your answer.
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Chris
12/4/2017 03:28:50 pm
Hard to know if he's causing further damage. It sounds risky, but it would depend on his posture, technique, flexibility and loading. Some sort of exercise rehab would be ideal, and if both he and his coworkers are respectful of his limitations, of course that would be perfect, but it's sometimes difficult to achieve. I'm sorry I can't really be of specific help via the internet.
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Chris
12/4/2017 03:34:19 pm
The other way to look at it would be this: if he can increase the strength of his lower back, abs and glutes (and probably work on flexibility of the hip flexors and hamstrings), he will improve his ability to stabilize his back when under load or more extreme ranges of motion. In training, if he can do it, his goal should be to improve his ability to stabilize his spine. That just means making the muscles that support the spine stronger, so he can reduce excessive movement of the spine joints.
Sereena
1/29/2018 03:04:33 am
This is wonderful advice. I have a very hard time actually pushing up on my foot to lift up stairs due to my feet having no arch whatsoever. I find it redistributes the weight in an awkward way and I can only ascend by pulling myself on a railing and bending forward. Going down is not much better, I literally have to hop down the stairs! Do you think that resistance training would help to strengthen the muscles to help me use stairs more efficiently?
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Chris
3/15/2018 02:01:21 pm
Yes, absolutely I do. I always recommend starting conservatively. If you practice similar movement patterns that are easier such as hip lifts/glute bridges and squats, and over time you can increase the repetitions or range of motion or difficulty of the exercises this should all help make climbing the stairs easier. But it can take many months so patience and consistency are important, but variety too so that you can stimulate the muscles and the mind in different ways over time.
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Chris
3/15/2018 02:05:22 pm
Also, but regrettably I don't think I can communicate the nuance effectively online, there is a relationship between strengthening the glutes and reestablishing the arch of the foot. Any training you do for the hip muscles, especially the butt muscles, can help the feet to a point. 3/15/2018 07:46:18 am
Is it important to take a rest day between stair workouts or can you do it every day?
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Chris
3/15/2018 01:55:29 pm
It's relative to difficulty. If an exercise for you is very challenging you may need a few or several days to recover in between training sessions. If for you, it's not challenging you can train every day without feeling fatigued. This is fluid. At first you may be able to train frequently but then fatigue may set in later and you may need more rest days.
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Margaret
8/7/2018 06:32:54 am
I have a question: What effect will this way of climbing stairs have on prolapsed organs? I had discovered this way of climbing stairs about 6 months ago by intuition, and it has been extremely helpful for my knees, and I think it is also strengthening muscles throughout my abdominal cavity. I think I have noticed some improvement in prolapse, but not enough. Prolapse may worsen throughout the day, but also improves more quickly. Is it just a matter of time?
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Chris
8/7/2018 11:06:03 pm
Cannot tell you, I'm afraid. I'd avoid anything jarring of course, and if your intuition has led you to this kind of technique I'd go with it. You may wish to consciously think about the alignment of your pelvis, pelvic muscle engagement, or abdominal activation - the short answer would be to make sure your "core" feels engaged and supported before climbing - or especially descending - the stairs. But I don't know enough about prolapsed organs to be able to recommend anything more than avoiding unstable environments / movements. Seek out core stability first, then move.
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Anon
3/12/2019 10:06:07 pm
Thank you for the very helpful article. I've been searching for a good hour at least and oddly not finding any results that talk about knee pain from stair risers that might be too high - how that can affect knees detrimentally - instead of oodles of info about your knee pain being from a host of other reasons and climbing stairs only a symptom and not a cause.
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Chris
3/12/2019 10:36:35 pm
Ooh that can be tough. I don't know if there's much you can do in an immediate sense apart from playing around with leverage like outlined above - rather than thinking of stepping up, imagine pulling back and down with the heel, it *should* take pressure out of the knee and make the hip more active. But if everything in the world behaved how it should!
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Anon
12/6/2020 07:09:22 pm
Follow up here and you won't believe it.
Deborah Gibbons
5/30/2019 07:07:08 am
When walking up flights of stairs, I find it more challenging to alternate the lead foot on each flight (ie, Start first flight with right foot, second flight leading with left foot first). I seem to get more fatigued doing it this way rather than when I always lead with my dominant right side foot. When I mentioned this to a co-worker, he thought it was crazy - stating a step is a step, it doesn’t matter which foot you lead with. I’ve been testing my theory for months and always find the same result but cannot find any documentation to support my theory. Am I crazy or is this a legit thing? Swear I see a difference. I’m guessing it has something to do with muscle memory. Please help me document I’m not hallucinating! LOL
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Chris
5/30/2019 03:21:29 pm
Yeah a step is a step, but your body is different. Your hips and legs are different from each other. Are either of you ambidextrous? Because of course you get better at things the more you practice, and if you favour one side, it'll get more practice over time. Then if you alternate, your less dominant side might be harder because the muscles are weaker, or it might be more demanding neurologically, which is to say coordination-wise.
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Anon
12/6/2020 07:14:32 pm
You're def not crazy. I do the same thing and lead with the left, and left handed and left eye dominant.
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Tim
1/11/2021 09:43:42 am
If you swap the pictures around, you blog post would have been semi valid. I would remove it as most will not read the comments and take the image + description seriously. This could lead to problems down the track.
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