The new on-demand program brings novelty and precision to stair climber workouts.
The stair climber is inherently straightforward. Set your speed, climb, wipe your sweat, call it a day. No brainwork required.
That minimalistic quality is also what makes it, for many, so miserable.
“I see, like, the leaning over, the holding on [to the handles] — using your upper body so that you have no lower-body activation,” says Andrew Slane, an Equinox group fitness instructor in New York City. “I’ll see people either be on it for hours, watching Netflix or reading a book…or they’re only able to stay on it for 10 minutes and they’re suffering, just grabbing on for dear life.”
It doesn’t have to be this way. Precision Step, a new category of science-backed, performance-driven stair climber workouts, is now exclusively available at Equinox.
The audio-only, on-demand suite of classes is rooted in the formula and methodology of Precision Run. High-intensity intervals are paired with bouts of recovery, all based on your one-minute Personal Record. “It adopts the exact same metric philosophy, where we help you determine what your ceiling is — your best level for a minute — and then we program around that number, which is exactly what Precision Run has been doing for 12 years,” says Precision Run founder David Siik. “It’s the same precision that’s in classic PR classes.”
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The use of intervals combats monotony, as does the storytelling and compelling coaching that’s unique to the “Precision” category. Looking back on his first-ever 30-minute Precision Step class, Slane jokes, “I was never in a state of torture...Having this become part of the PR family is brilliant. Since I took [the] class over a week ago, I've taken it three more times because I love it.”
It’s not just engaging or addictive. It’s meaningful programming, formulated to maximize output in the safest, most time-efficient way. “It is strength training disguised as cardio,” Slane explains. “You have to constantly lift your body weight against gravity with every step. I love it because of the glute activation.” Stair climbing itself has also been shown to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and insulin sensitivity.
Precision Step is designed to push your limits — but do so in a way that feels realistic and specific to you. Slane admits that, before he tried the workout, he worried that he wouldn’t hit his challenging one-minute PR during class. “But with the recoveries in between and with the build-up, when I got my Personal Record, I was like, ‘I'm powering up these steps. I feel great right now,’” Slane says. “Your body is always learning to adapt to the stressor, and then you're like, ‘Alright, I did that. I can do that again.’”
And you’ll want to. “This is the stair climber workout you didn’t know you needed,” says Siik.
Start your journey with the “Finding Your PR” class, then get your heart racing with one of the full-length Precision Step workouts, now available on the EQX+ app.
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