This article clears the air once and for all that your butt will not get bigger from using the stair climber.
Whether you worry that the stair climber will make your butt bigger, or whether you hope to get a bigger butt by using the stair climber, here is the information that will set everything straight, once and for all.
If only it were as easy as using the stair climbing machine to get a bigger, shapelier butt. It “ain’t gonna happen.”
This is good news to those fearing that their chubby behinds will grow in size, and rotten news for those with flat behinds wanting to make them fuller.
Why won’t the stair climber make your butt bigger?
Climbing stairs is a cardio or aerobic activity. It’s of a sustained nature, like walking, jogging or pedaling a bike is. It’s a cardiovascular exercise, not strength training exercise.
You’ve certainly heard of people lifting weights to get “bigger muscles.” Climbing stairs is not the same as lifting weights.
Bodybuilders who want a bigger butt know to perform intense barbell squats and intense, weighted walking lunges.
They are not on the stair climber to develop the size of their buttocks muscles.
Take this as a cue that the stair climber will not give you a huge butt.
Don’t also be led astray by photographers’ choices of big-butt models for stair machine pictures, either.
This isn’t to say the equipment won’t tone if you use it rigorously. Of course it will tone.
But to those who seek a dynamically endowed behind, and to those who fear their over-endowed behind will get even “fatter” by using this machine, you are hugely mistaken.
Paced stair climbing, like any aerobic activity, recruits slow twitch muscle fiber.
These fibers are designed for duration-based activity, not power-based activity.
These fibers do not grow in size. If they did, then marathon runners would have huge legs and huge behinds.
No matter how much time you spend on the stair climber, your butt will not get bigger because you’re using the slow twitch muscle fibers.
Again, they cannot grow in size. Only the fast twitch fibers can, and that’s when they are used for high power output or explosive-style strength moves.
Exercises that do indeed increase the size of the gluteal muscles are, as mentioned, barbell squats, walking lunges while holding heavy weights, plus additional strength training moves and full-force sprinting.
There are miscellaneous activities that are associated with a well-endowed rear, such as speed skating and gymnastics. Also keep in mind that:
- Some obese women have flat butts.
- Some slender women who hardly exercise have round shapely rears.
Thus, the shape of one’s rear isn’t just dependent upon body weight or exercise – genetics have a lot to do with it.
