Stairmaster vs. real steps

[IamJen]

Tonight, I thought I'd give the stairstepper at the gym another try..they got this brand new one that works a bit differently (and both of the rowers were broken :evil:). After just a couple of minutes, one of my knees (which has had a rough life, granted) hurts like hell. The weird thing is that I climb stairs all the time...often several flights at a time, and have no problem/pain.

I can't figure out what the difference is here..thoughts? :confused:

[beforewisdom]

Climbing stairs as exercise, stairmasters, other stair machines, and elliptical machines all have different biomechanics from each other. They are not equivalent exercises and your knees are stressed differently with each.

From what I have heard unless you are blessed with the appropriate skeleton and body all of them will eat your knees except for elliptical machines.

[puttster]

I was told by a physiotherapist that the stairmaster is different than stairs because with a stairmaster, the machine is forcing you to push something down, whereas with climbing stairs, you are pulling your weight up.