Step Up! E-Book

Thomas Dold

• Herausgeber: Meyer & Meyer Sport
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 231

Beschreibung

Step Up, the ultimate guide to stair running, provides both beginner and ambitious runners with comprehensive ideas and suggestions for training. In addition to theoretical knowledge, it includes exercises and practical tips, all illustrated by photos and explanatory videos accessed via QR codes. Included, too, are exercise variations that help runners to push over their training plateaus and progress to the next level. With its strength and coordination exercises and stair jumps, Step Up offers new training incentives for those training for running, endurance, or game sports. The book also includes weekly plans that help structure training, aiding every runner in achieving their goals. As is true with all sports training, athletes cannot reach their potential without working their mental strength. To round out training, this book also addresses motivation and focus, crucial for training runners' mental strength. Interviews and personal insights from author Thomas Dold add a bit of levity, making this book both practical and entertaining for runners.

Leseprobe

THOMAS DOLD

STEP UP!

THE ULTIMATE STAIRRUNNING TRAINING BOOK

 Includes a 12-weektraining plan!

TECHNIQUE • TRAINING • MOTIVATION

Meyer & Meyer Sport

British Library of Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Original title: Step Up: Trainingsbuch Treppenlaufen, © 2023 by Meyer & Meyer Verlag

Step Up

Maidenhead: Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK) Ltd., 2024

9781782555513

All rights reserved, especially the right to copy and distribute, including the translation rights. No part of this work may be reproduced–including by photocopy, microfilm or any other means–processed, stored electronically, copied or distributed in any form whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher.

© 2024 by Meyer & Meyer Sport (UK) Ltd.

Aachen, Auckland, Beirut, Cairo, Cape Town, Dubai, Hägendorf, Hong Kong, Indianapolis, Maidenhead, Manila, New Delhi, Singapore, Sydney, Tehran, Vienna

Member of the World Sport Publishers’ Association (WSPA), www.w-s-p-a.org

9781782555513

Email: [email protected]

www.thesportspublisher.com

CONTENTS

Introduction

About the Author

How the Book Is Structured

1Warm-Up

1.1Why Stair Running?

1.2Perspective and Approach

1.3After Each Stair Run Comes the Descent

2Why Running Stairs?

2.1Fun Factor and Attractiveness

2.2Challenge Yourself

2.3Variety

2.4Training Stimuli

2.5Mental Training

2.6Constant Training Conditions

2.7Extraordinary Competitions

3Getting Started: How Do You Run Stairs in Everyday Life?

3.1Your Attitude and Approach to Stairs

3.2View Direction

3.3Step Technique

3.4Helpful Strength Exercises

3.5Calf Lift

4Ascent: Stair Running at Full Power

4.1Mindset and Attitude at Full Speed

4.2View Direction

4.3Stair Technique

4.42-2 Technique for Winners

4.51-1 Technique

4.61-2 Technique

4.7Weight Shift

4.8Foot Placement

4.9Using the Handrail

4.10Overtaking

4.11Tactics

4.12Study on Tactics for Stair Running

4.13Supportive Strength Exercises

5Training Zones

5.1Health Check and Performance Test

5.2Training Zone: Regeneration or Recom

5.3Basic Endurance 1

5.4The Black Hole of Training

5.5Basic Endurance 2

5.6Competition-Specific Endurance/Anerobic

6Training Methods

6.1Continuous Method

6.2Intensive and Extensive Continuous Method

6.3Fartlek

6.4Interval Method

6.5Repetition Method

6.6Competition Method

7Training Planning and Control

7.1Goal Setting: What Do You Want?

7.2Planning

7.2.1Single Events

7.3Training and Documentation

7.4Plan: Actual Comparison of Training

7.5Plan Adjustment

7.6Success Control

7.7Planning or Instinct?

8Three Times Up and Down Maintower for Worldwide Success

9Typical Stair Running Sessions

9.1Where Do You Find Stairs?

9.1.1Converting Floors to Outdoor Stairs

9.1.2Where Can You Train on the Stairs?

9.1.3Stäfele City Stuttgart

9.1.4DIN 18065 Regulates Stair Construction

9.2How Do You Incorporate Stair Running Into Running and Other Training Sessions?

40 Minutes of Continuous Running Plus 3 × 3 Flights of Stairs

Long Intervals

Short Intervals for Sports

Sprints for Sports

9.3Stair Running Sessions for Beginners and Athletes

5 × 5 Floors With Breaks as Short as Possible

8–10 × 5 Floors With 80 Percent Effort and Short Breaks

6 × 5 Floors Full Throttle With Long Pause

5–12 × 5 Floors Walking Quickly

Walk 5 × 5 Floors

5 × 5 Floors With Rhythm Change

Pyramid

10Stair Jumps

10.1Warm-Up: Start of the Training Session

10.1.1 Positive Effects

10.2Main Part of the Training Session

10.2.1Positive Effects

10.3Exercises for Stair Jumps

One Step, Double-Leg Jump

Two Steps, Double-Leg Jump

Three or More Steps, Double-Leg Jump

One Step, Double-Leg Jump

Two or More Steps, Double-Leg Jump

Lunges and Jumps to the Side

One Step, Single-Leg Jump

Two Steps, Single-Leg Jump

Skating Jumps

Up-Down-Up Stair Jumps

Jump Runs: A Full-Body Workout

11Coordination Exercises on the Stairs

11.1Integrating Into Your Training

Skipping

Double Skips

Up-Down Runs

Run Behind and Cross Over

Bounce Jumps

Walking Backwards Up the Stairs

Walking Backwards Down the Stairs

Two Contacts per Step

1-2-1-2 Contacts per Step

1-2-3-2-1 Contacts per Step

Butt Kicks

12Strengthening Exercises on the Stairs

Calf Raise Plus Variations

Climbers

Walk as Many Steps as Possible

Floor Scale Plus

Step-Sit

Stair Climber

Half/Quarter Pistol Squats

Shaolin Walk

Push-Up Pyramid

13Stretching Exercises on the Stairs

13.1Why Do You Need Flexibility?

13.2Static and Dynamic Stretching

13.3Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF)

13.4How Long Should You Stretch?

13.5Mobilization With Stretching Exercises

Lunge | Hip Flexors

Hamstrings

Adductors

Abductors

Gluteal Muscles

Shoulders

Achilles Tendon and Calf Muscles

Chest

14Interview With the King of the Stairs

15Equipment

15.1Training

15.1.1Shoes and Cushioning

15.1.2Practical Shoe Test

15.1.3Gloves

15.2Competition

15.2.1Competition Shoe

15.2.2Race Outfit

15.2.3Energy Shot

15.2.4Compression Socks

15.2.5Cycling Gloves

15.3Regeneration

15.3.1Active Regeneration

15.3.2Alternative Sports: Swimming and Aqua Jogging

15.3.3Alternative Sport: Cycling

15.3.4Stretch and Mobilize

15.3.5Yoga

15.3.6Regeneration for the Brain Through Meditation

15.3.7Recovery With Compression Stockings

15.3.8Prophylaxis Tip

16Interview With Suzy Walsham

17Training Plans for Stair Running

17.1Training Plan for Beginners and Running Enthusiasts

17.1.1 Strengthening and Stretching Exercises

17.2Training Plan for Leisure Runners

17.2.1 Strengthening and Stretching Exercises

17.3Training Plan for Ambitious Athletes

17.3.1 Strengthening and Stretching Exercises

18Tower Running Majors

18.1International

18.1.1Empire State Building Run-Up (ESB Run-Up)

18.1.2Taipei 101

18.1.3Sydney Tower Run-Up

18.1.4Swissotel Vertical Marathon

18.1.5Niesen Stair Run

18.2Germany

18.2.1Sky-Run Berlin

18.2.2Frankfurt Trade Fair Tower

18.2.3TK Tower-Run Rottweil

18.2.4Mt. Everest Stair Marathon

18.3Tower-Running Directory

18.3.1Towerrunning.com

18.3.2Vertical World Circuit

19Focus and Mental Training

19.1Focus on Stair Running and on Life

19.2Training

19.2.1Coordination Exercises

19.2.2Focus on a Task

19.2.3Focusing With a Candle

19.2.4Focusing With Chocolate

19.2.5Focusing With Breathing

19.3Achieve What Your Focus On

19.4Focus or Distraction When Running Stairs

20Goals and Setbacks

20.1Goals and Intermediate Goals

20.2Four-Field Matrix

20.3The Race Is the Same for Everyone

20.4Setbacks and Defeats

20.5Reframing

20.6There Are No Stairs to Happiness; Happiness Is the Stairs

20.7Mental Training and Meditation

20.8Meditate Like Buddha

References

INTRODUCTION

Welcome! I’m glad that you are here and that we have the chance to step up together. There are many ways to do this and stairs are one of the most common and easiest ways to get to the top.

Whether in the department store, at home, or on the winner’s podium, stairs are everywhere. Have you ever wondered how to make use of this constantly available fitness tool? This book is for you if you’re interested in any of the following:

+Stair running as a competitive sport for real achievers

+Stair training as complementary training for other sports

+Stair running as a way to increase your fitness in general

If none of these catch your eye or if you would prefer to be on the couch, you will still be interested in the entertaining stories from the tower-running circus and the chapter on focus and mental training.

About the Author

After a 20-year career in competitive sports, including 45 international stair running victories—seven in a row at the Empire State Building Run Up—and world records and world championship titles in backward running, a list of my accomplishments would take up several pages. If you would like to see the individual races and world records, they can be found at www.erfolge.thomasdold.com.

Crossing the finish line on the helipad at the China World Summit Wing in Beijing.

Winning the Empire State Building Run Up.

I started playing soccer when I was seven years old, but transitioned first to running at the age of 17 and, a short time later, to mountain running. Winning the bronze medal for Germany with the junior team at the 2002 World Mountain Running Championships was the first important highlight of my running career.

In 2003 I began my stair-running career at the Donauturm in Vienna. It took two years of intensive training and many stair-running sessions before I was fit enough to win tower runs, but ever since then I have traveled to taller and taller buildings around the world (in whose emergency staircases competitions are held). In addition to my sporting successes—the world records, the world championship titles, the trophies—these experiences and people I have met along the way have shaped my personality.

Over the years, not only has the world changed, so, too, have stair running and, particularly, myself. My personal journey has taken me from a young, inexperienced athlete hungry for success to one with more to offer than the mindset of a serial winner who achieves every goal with iron discipline and steely will.

It is possible to take a relaxed approach to physical and mental training and exercises. Top performance without gritted teeth has many advantages!

I love hearing from people—often after I have been a guest on a talk show—who say that now they take the stairs much more often and are having fun doing it. You’re alone on the winner’s podium, but moving forward together is a different kind of reward. Who are you willing to have fun with on the stairs, sweating after flights and flights of exercises?

How the Book Is Structured

Anyone can walk or run up stairs. But at train stations and airports, you quickly notice who is confident on the stairs and using the handrail and who is untrained.

To get you started, we look at the positive effects of taking and running stairs. In the following section, you get an overview of the topic of stair running. After that we will start with the basic elements like step technique, use of handrails, and so on in more detail. Explanations on using training areas and training methods will ensure a healthy and long-term ascent.

Once you have sufficient basics and tips for your training strategy, you will learn practical exercises for different fitness levels. In addition to stair running for beginners and advanced athletes, chapter 9 provides many ideas and inspiration for trainers and athletes from other sports who want to improve their training.

Each exercise has been rated on a scale of one to three stars with three stars representing the most challenging exercises.

Coordination and strengthening exercises on the stairs can be challenging. But the goal is not to inspire the next world champion tower runner. That is why the 12-week training plans are designed for beginners, amateurs, and ambitious runners. In addition, there are tips and tricks on special equipment and national and international competitions.

Mental preparation and resilience are key to stair running and therefore an entire chapter has been dedicated to these topics (see chapter 19).

1

WARM-UP

For many people, the thought of running up a skyscraper at a sprint pace may seem intimidating. It’s a feeling I can’t dismiss out of hand; even after 45 tower running victories on five continents, the thought is true, the impression is real.

1.1Why Stair Running?

•Why do thousands of people of all fitness levels still take the exhausting way up to the observation platforms of these prestigious buildings? Why do they insist on going on foot when high-tech elevators are waiting nearby?

This question about the WHY is clarified in this book as well as the question about the HOW. This will give you a sense of how taking more steps in your life can lead you to rise higher. You’ll recognize the opportunities that the oft-avoided fitness devices give you everywhere—in cities in high-rise buildings and as a natural staircase in vineyards and hillsides in rural areas.

1.2Perspective and Approach

This is the second focus of the book. Stair running challenges the body—if you want it to. However, there are valid reasons why stair running is often not included in training by many runners, endurance athletes, and athletes in general. The reasons lie in the approach, and that is the second point to which the book is dedicated.

There are objective and subjective reasons why someone takes the elevator or the stairs, why someone wins competitions and why someone else comes in second. Rarely are the physical reasons the real cause. The stairs of this world therefore offer not only the possibilities to strengthen the body, but also, for those who wish, to train the mind. Chapter 19 will discuss how to use this mental training in your everyday life.

1.3After Each Stair Run Comes the Descent

Wherever you are in the world, no stair climber has ever remained on the observation platform; for all of them, the ascent is followed by the descent. This metaphor describes life. It is a constant alternation between two polarities—tension and relaxation, ascent and descent, health and sickness, and the most extreme contrast between life and death. Nothing remains, not even physical performance; everything is subject to a constant rising and passing away.

These experiences and this mindset flow into this book as well as my experiences as a trainer of beginner, amateur, and internationally successful professional athletes who compete in the Olympic Games.

I know from painful experience: no trophy, no victory, and no goal achieved can really make you happy. The relief behind the finish line, the recognition, and attention are wonderful. But that is not happiness, it is like salt water when you are thirsty. Being happy takes place within you, in silence and stillness. With all the variety of experiences and knowledge, the focus of this book—the exercises and knowledge transfer—is on you. YOU should have fun while reading and especially during practicing and through this achieving your goals. In this sense, there is a short warm-up and then we’ll start with the core content. If you are very impatient, you can start directly with the practical exercises; you can always read the theory and tips on technique and training later.

2

WHY RUNNING STAIRS?

Usually you ask yourself the question of WHY at the very beginning.

•Why you have picked up this book and why are you are interested in exploring stair running?

Wherever this interest comes from, the main thing is that it leads to action and to trying it out in practice. If in the last days, weeks, months, and years you have not yet broken a sweat by running and climbing stairs, and your running shirt is still fresh and clean in your closet, this chapter will help you recognize the benefits of stair running.

If you have absolutely no intrinsic motivation for stair running, you can read as much as you want about the benefits; at any given moment, you will come up with a thousand excuses why climbing stairs is not for you right now. I have experienced this for 20 years and I know all the excuses people make for themselves, me, and others.

But you seem to have a flame of interest and motivation in you and we will keep it fueled with objective arguments until the stair running fire is big enough to fuel you.

2.1Fun Factor and Attractiveness

•Many of my seminar participants wonder:

•How can running stairs be fun?

•Aren’t the stairwells musty and dark?

•Isn’t the climb exhausting?

That’s exactly the thrill, the motivation. If you’re really hungry, you look forward to eating. A warm sunbath seems especially beautiful in dreary, dark, rainy weather in February. The power and sensations you feel as you run up the stairwell and finally reach the top cannot be described in words. The hormone cocktail that the body gives you as a reward is particularly long-lasting, usually for hours or even the whole day. The investment for this is the devotion to the stairs.

Those who are more committed to pushing the physical and mental boundaries will be exuberantly rewarded. This reward consists of an expanded physical and mental freedom. On the one hand, through the physical adjustment after supercompensation and on the other, through a new awareness of what you can handle.

How strong these effects and feelings are is up to you. It is true: Everything becomes simultaneously more intense; a momentum develops that every athlete knows. Often unconsciously the body and mind want to experience this feeling again; this turns on the staircase magnet and sets this (positive) devil’s cycle in motion. You now know that after overcoming the initial resistance, your stair running will take off. Let’s go.

2.2Challenge Yourself

For all competitors who love accuracy, comparability, and measurability, stair running is the Mecca. In the stairwells of the world, there is no wind and no bad weather—at least for indoor stair running. Outdoors, in the vineyards, for example, things are different, of course.

Because the external parameters are very constant, you can measure up—with others or, and this is a special mental challenge, with yourself. Look at and train with the stopwatch on your arm, the hammering pulse in your throat, the limits of what is possible with your body. You can compare a workout from last year, last month, or last week with your current workout, and you’ll know immediately how well you’re doing right now. With the exception of you and your performance, everything in the stairwell stays pretty constant.

This is not everyone’s cup of tea and some people break out in a sweat just reading about it. But always remember: In each of us there is a winner and the challenge gene. We see it in small children, but in many adults it has faded so much that it has become invisible. However, this gene is built into each body and can be awakened.

If you feel it right now, put the book aside and go for a run. The book can wait; your thighs, your calves, and your anticipation of the steps want to experience the feeling.

2.3Variety

Stability and variety need a suitable ratio. Experiencing the same food and drink every day is rarely a desirable goal. That is why effective training consists of basic training and sessions that alternate over and over again. Here, stairs can be a special splash of color in the training gray. Especially in winter, when the weather outside makes intensive sessions difficult, it is often shorts weather in the stairwell. The diversity of each staircase also creates variety. Whether it’s the handrail on the left or right, the height and depth of the steps, the overall ascent, and of course whether the staircase turns clockwise or counterclockwise.

“Climbing stairs has gone from a chore to a joyful challenge, and my thoughts wander to you ... It was nice hearing from you!”

–Feedback from a participant after a stair-running seminar

These are just a few of the obvious parameters that add variety to running stairs. Add to this your own physical shape, because with a higher level of fitness you will experience a completely different running sensation in the same staircase. Fighting against each step becomes like flying on an inclined plane towards the sky. This will certainly take a few thousand steps of training, but at least for a few floors almost everyone can feel this feeling of lightness and of flying towards the sky.

2.4Training Stimuli

“I run six times a week and I’m not getting any better!”

—Quote from a running seminar participant

In conversation, she explained that every morning, except Sunday, she and her friend jog the same loop, chatting or just running quietly next to each other. It usually takes them the same amount of time to complete the loop. If you don’t put your body out of balance (homeostasis), you won’t feel any adaptation. The physical performance increase can only happen if you move outside of the performance range you have been used to. Then the complex process of increasing the load tolerance will be set in motion and sooner or later you will notice more power and more endurance!

Stair running is a very intensive load, which is almost always outside the normal load balance. Therefore there are some important aspects to consider so that you do not strain your body. Stair running is excellent for friends of high-intensity interval training (HIIT).

2.5Mental Training

Many tower runs take place in staircases without windows and the entertainment of nature or spectators. This challenges your mental strength, because you will only be motivated from within for the next step. Due to the high load and effort, mental training is of particular importance. That’s why there is a separate chapter that also covers the topics of focus, goals, and setbacks.

2.6Constant Training Conditions

Many stairs are reserved exclusively for you. Whether in high-rise buildings or in nature, on the stairs you have a high chance to train undisturbed. No soccer team accidentally shoots balls at you, no trucks cross your path, and no cyclists overtake you. On the stairs you can do your training. This creates constant training conditions.

2.7Extraordinary Competitions

For my stair-running colleague Matthias Jahn, with whom I competed for many years in the worldwide competitions, that was the spark that lit the fire. When I told him I was running up the world’s tallest building in Taiwan, a switch flipped in him. From then on, he, and at times we together, trained for the stair races in the metropolises.

Doing sports in the centers of the world’s cities is a unique selling point. The view after the race is indescribable. Of course, not everyone who reads the book will be in New York to run up the Empire State Building, but perhaps the Millennium Tower in Vienna or the Swissotel in Singapore is worth a trip?

Maybe this is how your journey starts, into a whole new world—that of staircases, mega-cities, high performance, and training optimization.

Tower run in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam at the Bitexco Financial Tower.

3

GETTING STARTED: HOW DO YOU RUN STAIRS IN EVERYDAY LIFE?

Climbing stairs is easy! One foot in front of the other, step by step, until you reach the top. For everyday life, this approach is sufficient. It does not matter whether the handrail is used, how the turnings are made on the landings, and where the gaze is directed.

For those who want to know more about what can be experienced, this section provides the basic knowledge. The basics of the technique are presented in such a way that they are directly applicable for practical use. Because that is the goal: that you feel comfortable and at home on the stairs of this world.

Never take the elevator or escalator again?

That’s an honorable goal, but from my own experience, it’s not achievable. In buildings, especially the very high ones, it is impossible to take the stairs to the very top. Access to the observation decks, offices, and upper department store floors is often via the “easy” way with escalators and elevators.

This does not seem tragic, however, because there are plenty of other opportunities to take the stairs in the world.

3.1Your Attitude and Approach to Stairs

Friends have often said, “Boy, that must be really strenuous!” when they hear about training or competitions. Everyone has experienced how strenuous it is to climb stairs. One of the noticeable signs is the pulse, which after a few steps and floors begins to beat in the body.

If you bought the book yourself, you are very likely one of the people who see stairs at least as a possible workout and a tool for their own fitness. With this basic mindset that their use is donated exercise time, burns extra calories, strengthens the muscles, makes the heart beat faster, and much more, the stairs transform from a sweaty bugbear to an ever-present personal trainer who always has a few steps ready for you.

3.2View Direction

In addition to observing the staircase or the surroundings, it is particularly—useful especially at the beginning—to look at the stairs.

•Are they uneven?

•How deep is each one?

•What is the surface like?

•Are they rough, slippery, or grippy?

Steps are different. Indoors, you can assume that the steps won’t change much. Outside, and especially in the nature, stairs can be very irregular. The view should then be directed more to the steps than to the surroundings in order to move forward without stumbling (e.g., the next 5–10 steps in between looking at the next landing). This way you get a feeling of what is coming and where to place the next step. The best thing is to try it out, and find which angle suits you best.

3.3Step Technique

Usually people take one step at a time. That means, with each step, one overcomes a step. The right foot climbs up to the next step, the left foot foot overtakes the right foot and is placed one step higher than the previous right foot set. This sounds more complicated in theory than it is in practice.

For particularly narrow staircases or if the steps are unusual, for example at an airy height, it is possible to place the rear foot on the same step. For example, you climb with your right foot and place your left foot next to it.

If you have a handrail handy, you can use this as a support. Sometimes it is better not to use the railing (e.g., it is very high or low) or quite pragmatically, when your hands are already full with shopping bags.

The steps in the 48 m high tower of the Ambuluwawa temple in Sri Lanka are sometimes less than 30 cm wide. Overtaking is almost impossible—and yet unavoidable, since there is only one staircase.

3.4Helpful Strength Exercises

You don’t need special strengthening exercises for normal everyday stair climbing. Why would you? Everyone walks up and down stairs. But if you take the stairs more often and more intensively, you will notice how much strain is placed on your calves. Therefore it is a good idea to do a stretching and strengthening exercise.

3.5Calf Lift

Starting position:

Stand with the front part of your foot on the edge of the first step; only the balls of your feet touch the step, the heels are in the air and protrude beyond the edge of the step.

Exercise description:

Press up on your toes and hold the position at the highest point for 1–2 seconds. Then lower the heels as far as possible, preferably to below the edge of the step until you feel a stretch in the calves.

Reps: 3–10 times

Rest: one minute between reps

Sets: 2–3 times

Strong training effect: calves

VARIATION:

The exercise is easier if you hold on to a wall or handrail. This is a strengthening exercise with an integrated stretching element. Many more strengthening, stretching, and coordination exercises can be found in the corresponding chapters of the book.

Two-leg calf lift

Variation: One-leg calf lift

4

ASCENT: STAIR RUNNING AT FULL POWER

On your marks!

This is how every race up the Empire State Building started, followed by the deafening noise of the horn. What then ran for a good 10 minutes as an automatic program in body and mind was the result of thousands of hours of practice. It looks so easy on TV, but what’s behind it?

4.1Mindset and Attitude at Full Speed

It is different for every runner, but there are commonalities.

1. Think about the goal