Effects of Descending Stair Walking on Cardiometabolic Adaptations Among Obese, Untrained Women

The global rise in the prevalence of physical inactivity is major public health concern. Lifestyle-related activities, such as stairs walking, has important public health implications and may represent an alternative approach for those who have difficulty adhering to conventional exercise programs. This two-armed, parallel-group, randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to assess and compare the effects between the descending stair walking (DSW) and ascending stair walking (ASW) on cardiometabolic health markers, cardiopulmonary capacity, body composition and muscular strength.

This RCT will recruit 16 obese inactive and sedentary females will be randomized using permuted block randomization into two arms: intervention arm, DSW and active comparator arm: ASW in a 1:1 allocation ratio. The participants in the DSW and ASW arms will undergo twice a week stair walking intervention session for 8 weeks. The exercise volume will be gradually increased over 8 weeks by increasing the number of repetitions by two every week for both arms. Borg's scale of perceived exertion (RPE) and visual analogue scale (VAS) will be used to assess subjective intensity of stair walking and pain intensity immediately after each repetition. Assessments will be carried out through two time points, pre-intervention assessment (T0) and immediately after completion of the intervention at 8 weeks (T1). During each assessment, the primary outcome to be assessed includes the cardiometabolic health markers and cardiopulmonary capacity, while the secondary outcomes to be assessed are the body composition and muscular strength. Whereas during the intervention, continuous heart rate and gas consumption will be monitored at week 1 (W1), week 4 (W4) and week 8 (W8) to monitor the intensity of the exercise.