One of the best vertical trainers, P.J. Glassey, shares simple injury prevention tips and a seven-day training play to get you ready for your next stair climb.
Injury Prevention Training Tips
- Warm up and cool down for five minutes.
- When stair climbing in a building, always take the elevator down to avoid injuring knees, ankles and calf muscles.
- Incorporate three days of H.I.I.T (High Intensity Interval Training).
- Stretch after every workout; use the foam roller on your IT band and glutes.
- Rest for one day.
More: How to Prevent Injuries in Endurance Training
Sample Seven-Day Glassey Stair Climb Workout
Day One: Treadmill Workout
Set the treadmill incline to 30 percent grade (or the highest on the treadmill) and 4 mph.; go as long as you can and then rest one minute. Repeat six times. Keep track of your segment times.Day Two: Off Day
Practice mental preparedness. Maybe take a meditation or yoga class to ease your mind and focus on your breathing.
More: 15 Minutes to a Stronger Mind and Body
Day Three: Tower Training
Assume the building is 50 stories high. Adjust the training based on the number of floors in the training tower.- Use the first 15 floors as a warm up, climb at 70 steps per minute, two steps at a time. Use a digital metronome for pacing.
- Sprint full speed to floor 30. Ignore the pacer on the sprint segment.
- Single-step to floor 32 at a 70 steps per min pace.
- Sprint full speed to floor 39. Again, ignore the pacer on this segment.
- Single-step to floor 42 at a 70 steps per min pace.
- Sprint full speed to the top. No need to use the pacer here.
More: Intro to Stair Climbing
