Hi everyone! I wanted to start a thread about what I refer to as the "Scary Stairmaster"!

It's the real stairmaster in my gym where you actually walk up stairs at various speeds. I have to say, it's one of the best cardio machines (especially for my problem areas - butt and legs).

Problem is, I can only last for 5 min on the damn thing. I saw a girl recently that was on it as long as I was on the treadmill (30 min!). She was probably wondering why I was staring at her so much

Wondering, anyone out there that sees this machine as scary and wants to share stories (hopefully success ones along the way?)

LMAO too funny, it took me a year of going to the gym before I would even get on that thing it freaked me out. Slow and steady wins this one the slower you make the stairs the longer you will be able to go I fi nd that you gan increase both time and speed by slowly increasing each. So for one week keep it a slow spead for 10 min, the next week up the speed by one or two what ever you feel comfortable with, the next week keep the speed and up your time and so forth. Eventually you will see the results. Good Luck, Have fun

The elliptical machine has always been the highest level of scary I can do at my gym. These stair machines are a "five minutes, and I'm dead" sort of experience.

I think I'll try the "slow and steady" idea, perhaps once a week, while continuing to work my butt off (literally, please) on the treadmill.

Completely unrelated: OMG - the repair guy FINALLY came to my Y. We've had 5 of 12 treadmills in various states of disrepair ("walking only, please - belt slips!" and "maintenance has been called DO NOT USE" and so forth). I hope this means that maybe we'll have more than 7 treadmills open today!!

are you talking about Arc machine? When i was new to the gym i tryed to do higher level of resistence and also could go for 5 mins top. But when i met my trainer he said to me "focus on finishing 30 mins and not on resistance". He saod if its too hard for me with resisnace its better to set it on "0" and finish 30 mins than set to unrealistic number and be misrable in 5 mins. So set your numbers so you can FINISH! the next day i set it to 0 and i did all 30 mins! it was cool!

The problem with 5 mins workout where you feel machine is killing you is not good for you because it will develope fear and you may not want to go back to that machine. And thats not good. Even if its nothing on resistance level - FINISHING is everything and its better for you.
Now 2 weeks later i can do 30 mins on resistance 50 (out of 100) and i am impressed!

Oh, I agree - that thing is a KILLER! My current gym does not have one, but my last one did. Seriously, though, nobody ever used it. I tried it once, & that was plenty for me!

yeah no one ever uses the one at my gym too lol. Its really tall and scary lol. I hate to go on them, then realize I don't like them so I look weak and lame. Stupid I know

I may be in the minority here, but I LOVE this machine. Maybe because I know that it is giving me a really good workout. It did take a while before I learned to love it though

The only thing I don't like about it is that I feel like I so visible to everyone because I am higher up. Like I am on display or something.

megan - I think that is it for me too, being high up and everyone looking at you...but they are probably thinking (like I am when I see someone), wow, I wish I could do that

S