WANT to reduce your diabetes risk? Try walking down stairs.
More than one million Australians are currently living with diabetes and the number is expected to rise to three million in 20 years.
Now researchers from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia have shown that walking down stairs can help prevent the condition far more than walking up stairs.
The key could be something known as eccentric exercise where load is placed on the muscle while it is lengthening, rather than shortening. For example, walking down stairs is eccentric exercise because the front thigh muscles are lengthening when they are placed under load, as opposed to walking up stairs in which the muscles are shortening, performing mainly concentric contractions.
The researchers from ECU's School of Medical and Health Sciences recruited 30 obese elderly women and put them on an exercise program, with half walking up stairs and the others walking down stairs.
At the end of a 12-week program, the women who walked down stairs showed improvements on several physiological measures.
"They had significantly lower levels of resting glucose, insulin and haemoglobin 1AC, improved oral glucose tolerance test, and decreased triglycerides and cholesterols together with an increase of good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol) in their blood," said lead researcher Ken Nosaka.
"All of these changes will have lowered their risk of developing diabetes."
Professor Nosaka said while both groups recorded an improvement it was significantly greater in the down stairs group.
As well as protecting against metabolic syndrome and diabetes, the researchers also found that the down stairs group's physical function such as walking ability, balance, bone mineral density and resting heart rate and blood pressure all improved significantly more than the up stairs group.
Professor Nosaka said it was yet more evidence that not all exercise is created equal in terms of its health benefits.
There are lots of ways to incorporate eccentric exercise into your life to enjoy the health benefits.
"If you work in a tall building, try taking the lift up to work, but then walk down the stairs when you go home. Or, if you are using weights, concentrate on the lowering the weights slowly, because the lowering action causes your muscles to perform eccentric exercise.
"Even sitting down in your chair slowly makes your leg muscles to contract eccentrically so by sitting down slowly you can get a bit of eccentric exercise."
"Effects of descending stair walking on health and fitness of elderly obese women" was published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
