Exercise Equipment - Stairmill Questions

hey chickies!

i have some ?'s about the stairmill i know a lot of people dislike it but i love it. my question is what muscles is it working. just glutes?? if i spin and use the stair mill will that be overuse of the same muscles. just trying to get some info. i use spinning and running and the stairmill for cardio and i want to make sure my glutes, ab/ad, hamstrings etc are all being worked but not overworked.

please help

I loved using the stairmill when I used to go to the gym for my workouts.
I always felt like I was working all of the muscles in my lower body. Here is a good article which gives you different workout suggestions to emphasis the different muscles of the legs:

http://jamieatlas.wordpress.com/2008/07/24/stepmill-most-underrated-machine-in-your-gym/

Narnia 99 - thank you so much for referencing my article! I really appreciate you thinking my blog is good enough to pass on to others (hug!)

bjeweled - if you are already doing running and spinning then you are using lots of muscles in a 'front-back' direction. To really tap into different parts of the glute and ab/ad use the stairmill walking up at a 45 degree angle (if that makes sense) - the blog link Narnia99 referenced talks about it.

For a real challenge try doing the 45 degree step up two steps at a time or with 1 or both hands off the machine hanging by your side - you will really feel your stabilizers (and deep glute muscles) kicking in!

Hope that helps!
Jamie Atlas