Ok I’ll cut to the chase.
Do you want to know what the quickest way to make walking up stairs feel easy? In fact, it’s the quickest way to make anything you find a bit effortful feel easy…
→ Do something harder beforehand.
I know that sounds almost too simple. But it’s exactly what happened in my house this week, and it’s the clearest illustration I’ve ever seen of what strength training is actually doing in the background.
I’ve got my three boys joining in on my GLOW10 strength training sessions these school holidays. Usually after breakfast, before we head out for the day or I start work and they inevitably drift toward a screen.
They complain a bit. Every time. And then they do it anyway.
This week, one of them finished his session, headed upstairs, and called back down from the landing.
“Mum. Why does it feel so easy to walk up the stairs? I feel like I’m gliding.”
The simple explanation is this:
When you train your legs to do something harder, the things that used to feel like effort become relatively easier by comparison. The stairs didn’t get easier. His legs got more capable. And so the stairs just stopped registering.
You might notice this a little immediately, but the real benefit happens over months as you continue to challenge your body and increase it’s capacity.
(I will say, the ladies from Monday’s lift class might not feel quite the same way after doing lots of quad work on Monday! Day two is its own experience. 😅).
This is what gets undersold about strength training.
We talk about what it builds. Muscle. Bone density. Metabolic health. All real, all worth it.
But what it quietly removes doesn’t get nearly enough airtime.
If you can do repetitions of full-range lunges with dumbbells in your hands? You’ll also be able to get up off the floor without a second thought.
If you can do squats with a heavy weight in your hands? Getting out of a low chair without using your hands becomes a piece of cake.
Been working on your farmers carry? Carrying the groceries in one trip will be a breeze.
None of this is because you’ve become an athlete. It’s because you’ve been doing something slightly harder, regularly, and ordinary life has started to feel ordinary again.
That’s the whole thing.