Descending stair walking as exercise medicine

Over the past several decades, muscle damage represented by delayed-onset muscle soreness and prolonged decreases in muscle function has been a central agenda for exercises mainly consisting of eccentric (lengthening muscle) contractions (ie, eccentric exercises).1 However, in more recent decades, the paradigm of eccentric exercise has taken on new dimensions with accumulating evidence suggesting its positive effects on health and fitness parameters, especially by low-intensity, moderate-load eccentric exercises.1 Moderate-load eccentric exercises do not induce as much muscle damage as high-intensity eccentric exercises do, but appear to produce morphological, functional and metabolic adaptations that are important for health and quality of life.1–3 This editorial will discuss descending stair walking as an inexpensive and easily accessible moderate-load eccentric exercise modality, along with its effects on health, functional capacity and body composition. The most abundantly investigated modality of moderate-load eccentric exercise is eccentric cycling,2 3 in which knee extensor and hip extensor muscles resist against the force generated by backward-moving pedals driven by a motor in a specially designed ergometer or bicycle. Several studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of eccentric cycling in improving body composition and functional capacity.2 3 In a recent meta-analysis, Barreto et al 2 documented that eccentric cycling increases muscle strength and mass, functional capacity and aerobic power, while decreasing body fat. Similarly, eccentric stepping, in which linear instead of circular movements generated by an ergometer are performed, has been shown to improve functional capacity and body composition.4 However, the cost of the ergometers is a negative aspect of these exercise modalities.3 A modality that is inexpensive, accessible and widely implementable in daily …