Step height for cardio
When I restarted recently I vowed that THIS time, I am in it for the long haul -- I would only do things that were really good for me, and, preferably, pretty sustainable for the long haul. So I started doing my stepping on a 6-inch step, for the sake of my knees.
And yet... here I am, finally doing pretty rigorous cardio again, well, and the temptation to raise the step substantial. I did PowerMax on 6-inch step last night (except the last 7 minutes of the cardio, which I skipped because I ended my cardio portion at 10 pm sharp, out of deference to our downstairs neighbors) and while I had fun, I really felt like I would need to raise the step to get a really intense workout. As it was I got a good workout, but I was looking for more intensity than I got out of that. Now, there are reasons other than the step height that it wasn't as intense as it might have been. For one thing, I work out in a limited space, so some moves are slightly truncated in my living room. Moreover, again out of deference to my downstairs neighbors, I stepped and jumped a wee bit more delicately than I otherwise would have done -- so there was definitely less ooomph in it and that probably made a difference. But whatever the reason, the net result was I was left wanting more.
I am keeping the step at 6 inches for now prophylactically, but I was wondering if anyone has any idea -- either from science or from years of experience -- whether this is good or necessary.
Possibly relevant facts: I am only 5'3 and do not have especially long legs for my height. I am 28 years old. In case it matters, I'm probably mesomorph, with some extra weight and a rather stocky underlying bone structure (i.e., big calves that don't fit into skinny boots, mostly due to bone and muscle [even when out of shape] rather than fat). I have never found stepping to give me knee trouble before -- although I've done funky things to my knee on a few random occasions in memory, only one of them corresponded with stepping on any height (took a bad step 10 minutes into Kathy Smith's Power Step workout several years ago!) -- usually if I hurt my knee it's not from exercising at all, but just walking down the stairs or stepping off a curb funny (klutz).
I really want to do the right thing for my long-term health. What do you think?
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