Make Stair Climbing Easy with ONE Exercise (for 50+)

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In this video, Farnham’s leading over-50s specialist physio, Will Harlow, reveals a simple exercise to make climbing stairs easy. This video is perfect for seniors and ages 50+.

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*About Will Harlow*
Will Harlow is a physiotherapist, best-selling published author and YouTube creator who specialises in helping people over the age of fifty. Will is a fully qualified physiotherapist with a Master’s degree from Brunel University in London. His credentials include a BSc and MSc. More about Will Harlow here: https://willharlow.com/

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If you’re over 50 with a painful problem in the Farnham, Surrey area, you can learn more about how HT Physio can help you return to your active life here: https://ht-physio.co.uk/

**Any information in this video should not be used as a substitute for individual medical advice. Please seek advice from your local healthcare professional before taking action on the information in this video. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Will Harlow will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of information contained in this video including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness or death.**

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most people over 50 think that difficulty climbing stairs is just a normal part of aging but in today’s video i’m going to show you one exercise that i give to my over 50s clients that helps them climb stairs easily in just a matter of a few days my name is will harlow and i specialize in helping people over 50 to improve their strength and mobility and in today’s video i’m going to give you one incredible exercise to help you climb stairs with ease most people believe that their problem with stairs is because they lack strength in their knee muscles and some people do but more common than that is a weakness somewhere else let me explain when we plant our foot on the stairs to either go up or come down it’s our knee muscles that produce the power to either push us up or put the brakes on as we come down but if you don’t have your thigh bone in the correct position your knee muscles can’t work as well as they should have a look at these two scenarios so i can prove my point if i have a stable pelvis and my thigh bone stays in alignment then my knee will travel over my toes as it should do and i can optimize the use of my quads above the knee but if i don’t have a stable pelvis and thigh bone then my knee drops in towards the midline of my body my quads can’t work as well there’s a buildup of pressure on the inside of the knee joint and it can lead to more fatigue on stairs so the muscle that controls the alignment of your leg and your pelvis on the stairs is this one the glutius medius it’s one of your glute muscles at the back of the hip and is one of the most important muscles on the body for stair climbing and i’ve got an exercise to show you that can strengthen it and activate it so you can do stairs with no problems so what we’re going to do with this exercise is you’re going to do it at two different times the first time is you’re going to do it just before you’re going to do stairs if you find stairs problematic so you’ll do a few repetitions just before you go up the stairs the second time you’ll do it is at any point throughout the day when you’re just stood there either at the stove or brushing your teeth it’s a brilliant time to do a few reps if you do that for a while it will make a huge difference so i’m going to show you the exercise now but it’s not suitable for everyone definitely avoid it if it causes you pain you just need something to hold on to for this exercise so i’m going to use the wall over here you’re going to put two hands on the thing to hold on to and have a nice straight spine as straight as you can i want you to then take all of your weight over to one leg so i’m going to put all my weight on my right which means my left is now nice and free and this is what we’re going to you’re going to stand up tall you’re going to take your leg out to the side and activate that glute hold for a second and then come back in now if you watch my technique i’m not leaning at all with my upper body my upper body stays completely still i’m just moving my leg and the direction is a diagonal backwards and out so it’s about 80% out 20% backwards which gives me a slight diagonal angle going like that now if you’re doing this well you’ll find that your back is relaxed your legs are relaxed but this muscle here in your hip is working really hard and it can get quite achy quite quickly that’s a good thing that means you’re activating that glutius medius and what you want to do this sounds counterintuitive is keep doing it until it starts to get achy and then do the stairs and you might be thinking well if it’s more tired surely it will be worse on stairs not better but the way the body works is the muscle that’s just been used is almost activated which means that it’s more readily available and it will be better at stabilizing your knees up and down stairs than it was before you did the exercise so you’re going to do somewhere between 10 and 20 repetitions on each leg then do the stairs come back to it a few times throughout the day as well and as a side note this is just one of the many exercises in my book thriving beyond 50 so if you’ve enjoyed this video so far then definitely go and pick up a copy you can find details of that in the description box below this video anyway drop a comment below if you’ve tried this out and it helps i would love to hear your thoughts and i’ll see you again on the next