A Step Above
On a recent Monday evening at the Family Fitness Center in West Hills, exercise buffs stood in line to put their names on a StairMaster list. Then they waited as much as 30 minutes to use the machine that has swept this health club and so many others in the San Fernando Valley and Southern California.
But despite its popularity, a study released by Cal State Northridge in January showed that the StairMaster-4000--a stepping treadmill--and a traditional treadmill machine offer similar workouts. Nevertheless, at Family Fitness Centers and gyms across the Valley, treadmill machines stand empty while hordes of exercisers line up to use the StairMaster.
“There’s no question about it, the StairMaster-4000, the personal trainer, has captured the imagination of the American public,” said George Holland, professor of physiology at CSUN and author of the recently released study.
“There is virtually no difference in the aerobic benefits of the StairMaster and the treadmill,” Holland said. “And yet if you visit a gym anywhere in the Valley the treadmills are empty, and there are lines of people waiting for a StairMaster.”
CSUN was chosen because of its extensive physiology lab and equipment needed to properly test exercise equipment.
“New exercise equipment really isn’t thought up that often,” said Ralph Cissne, a spokesman for StairMaster. “Once a person is able to tone and build muscle while they are getting an aerobic workout--like the StairMaster-4000, there isn’t really much reason to design more equipment.”
Still, because of the StairMaster’s popularity across the country, companies that make fitness equipment have been searching for ways to alter the StairMaster and get in on the craze of stepping for health. An Atlanta-based company called Step, Inc., has teamed up with Reebok Shoes in Los Angeles to create a stepping program that can be taught in health club classes.
The Step-Reebok was introduced to California health centers in March. In the Valley, Racquetball World has purchased 60 of the three-tiered platforms and started teaching a stepping class three times a week. Each person in the class uses a platform and follows an instructor in performing 45 minutes of various stepping moves and constant arm motions.
“People are always looking for variety in their workouts,” said Lacson, who teaches the class at Racquetball World. “Even our StairMaster fanatics like a change once in a while and this is so much like the StairMaster that I think it’s really going to take off.”
A recent Step-Reebok class at the fitness center was filled with more than 30 people. Most were able to finish the strenuous workout because they are in good condition from using the StairMaster, Lacson said. The class is so popular, the club is planning to add night classes soon.
“I can do the StairMaster for an hour and I can barely keep up with this class,” said Anna Faber, 30, who took the Step-Reebok class because she was getting burned out on the StairMaster. “It’s a killer and I love it.”
The CSUN physiology department’s research lab--the only place in the country where formal testing is being done on the StairMaster--first began studying the machine in September, 1987.
Holland and CSUN physiology assistant professor Steven Loy are now researching StairMaster’s newest step-treadmill machine, the Gauntlet, a modified version of the StairMaster machine seen in most health clubs. Instead of pedals, the machine has revolving stairs that come at the user and force a person to lift his or her feet for each step. The CSUN study, which will be completed in May, compares the benefits of using the Gauntlet with spending an equal amount of time jogging or riding a stationary bicycle.
StairMaster Inc. of Dallas partially funded the first two studies and is completely paying for the Gauntlet research by means of a grant to the CSUN physiology department.
“We believe it is important for them to test our equipment and prove that it truly is ideal fitness training machinery,” Cissne said.
When CSUN first began researching StairMaster machines, it was obvious their originality would revolutionize the arena of aerobic machines, Holland said.
“People are always looking for something new, some different way to get the same aerobic benefits,” Holland said. “This was that something.”
Most athletic clubs in the Valley use the StairMaster-4000, which is the company’s second machine and the only StairMaster that involves standing on large pedals and moving them up and down with a computer-controlled stepping action. The other two models--StairMaster-6000 and Gauntlet--have revolving stairs that continually come at a person. StairMaster-6000, the company’s first machine, came out in 1985.
Prior to 1985, when StairMaster machines were first introduced to health clubs across the country, people relied on stationary bicycles and treadmills to provide indoor aerobic benefits.
“These days, if you don’t have StairMaster machines, you don’t survive in the business,” said Michael Neal, assistant manager at the Family Fitness Center in West Hills. “They are extremely popular and some people just won’t use anything else.”
The first CSUN study, which took one semester to complete, examined benefits for 13 cardiac patients who used the treadmill or StairMaster under medical supervision. The aerobic benefits were virtually the same.
The second study used 18 healthy college students to compare the StairMaster to the treadmill. Tests again proved that there was only a slight difference in the level of accelerated heart rate and concluded that there was no difference in the aerobic benefits of the two machines.
The third study will be completed in May.
The StairMaster “is much more popular because it’s new and because a person is able to work out the muscles in their lower legs,” Holland said.
Despite research showing similar benefits, health club members at the West Hills gym believe they are more fit if they work out on the StairMaster rather than the treadmill or stationary bicycle, Neal said.
“StairMaster fanatics even have a special way of standing,” Neal said. “I think what happened is somebody started using it that way because it’s easier and then everyone else started doing the same thing. They think it’s important to look like they know what they’re doing.”
The proper way to use a StairMaster is to stand perfectly straight and not use the handrails to support any body weight. However, Neal said that it is common to see StairMaster users in his club turn their wrists outward when they grip the handrails and bending slightly at the waist while they use the machine. Members believe by bending forward they are getting more of a workout in their upper legs and buttocks.
Family Fitness Center, like Racquetball World, has nine StairMaster machines. Signs surrounding the area where machines are set up advise users to keep their workout to 20 minutes or less.
To keep members honest, most fitness centers have programmed the machines to stop after 20 minutes. Sign-up sheets are necessary because at almost any hour of the day, every available machine is in use.
“Recently, we purchased several treadmills to see if that would free up our StairMasters,” said Jo-Anne Lacson, fitness manager at Racquetball World. “But they don’t want treadmills or bicycles or anything else. They want the StairMaster.”
Part of the CSUN research concluded that the StairMaster would be popular with a wide variety of people because it was beneficial to cardiac patients as well as healthy college students.
“Therefore, everyone in between can benefit,” Holland said.
The basic benefit of the StairMaster is that a person can get a complete cardiovascular workout in 15 to 20 minutes, although the workout is no better or quicker than a treadmill workout, Holland said. But he said people are flocking to centers that have the machine and even buying their own. The company’s personal trainers, which appear most commonly in health clubs, cost $2,195, Cissne said.
“We have doubled our sales every year since StairMaster first came out with the 4000 model, the personal trainer,” Cissne said.
In addition to its popularity, results from the current study are proving it is as beneficial as running or jogging but without the high injury rate that runners suffer, Loy said.
The combined benefits make the StairMaster perfect for people like Kathy-Joe Margolis, 33, of Woodland Hills. Margolis, a vice president for Malibu Savings Bank, works out at Racquetball World, where rows of StairMasters are placed in front of a giant television screen.
“I can come in and work out while I’m watching TV or talking to people next to me about loans and CD rates,” said Margolis, who spends 40 minutes a day on a StairMaster machine and used to jog. “I wouldn’t do anything else.”