Walking is fine, but there’s a smarter option: The ultimate exercise to boost your cardio using your iPhone

Besides just walking, climbing stairs can be a comprehensive workout. This exercise builds leg strength, improves cardiovascular health, and burns calories efficiently. The iPhone’s built-in Health app (available on iOS 11 and later) automatically tracks your daily activity by measuring both steps and elevation gains using integrated sensors such as an accelerometer and barometer.

Here, we’ll explore why stair climbing can boost your fitness routine and explain how to monitor your progress with the Health app. You’ll learn where to find detailed step counts and discover effective methods to use this data to stay motivated throughout your journey.

Why you should try stair climbing as a cardio exercise

Stair climbing engages the muscles in your legs, glutes, and core while raising your heart rate in a similar way to other aerobic activities. This dynamic exercise burns 2 to 2 times as many calories as walking on flat ground. Regular sessions not only improve endurance and boost cardiovascular fitness but also help lower blood pressure and strengthen joints over time.

By tracking both steps and flights climbed—metrics recorded by the Health app and other fitness devices—you can gain insights into gradual improvements and consistent activity patterns. Setting goals becomes easier with concrete data. For example, aiming for 10 flights or 8,000 steps daily establishes a tangible benchmark.

The Health app simplifies this process by automatically logging two key metrics. Steps represent the overall walking movement, including any stair climbing, while flights climbed quantify elevation gains of approximately 10 feet per increment, as measured by your iPhone’s barometer.

Even brief bursts of stair climbing contribute significantly to your activity levels. Choosing stairs over elevators during your daily commute or incorporating a quick climb on a park staircase during your walk can boost your strength and stamina.

How to track stairs and steps with your iPhone’s health app

Although your iPhone captures this data passively, an initial setup is required. Follow these steps:

1. Enable Fitness Tracking: Open Settings > Privacy & Security > Motion & Fitness. Toggle on Fitness Tracking and Health.
2. Set up your medical ID: Open the Health app, tap your profile photo, then select Medical ID. Fill in basic info.
3. View your stats: Open the Health app, tap Browse, then select Activity. Tap Steps to view daily totals. Return to Activity and tap Flights Climbed to review elevation gains.
4. Pin key metrics: Within the Steps or Flights Climbed screens, toggle Add to Favorites. This action saves the metric to your Health app dashboard.
5. Review detailed history: Tap Show All Data under any metric to see the exact times and dates for your climbs or steps.

For accurate tracking, carry your iPhone in a pocket or armband during workouts. Keep in mind that flights climbed capture any elevation gain (for example, from hills or escalators), not just traditional stairs.

If your stats appear inconsistent, restart your iPhone, verify that Motion & Fitness settings are enabled, and keep your device with you during activity. Over time, the collected data will reveal trends that can help you refine your routine without guesswork.

By integrating platforms and devices—such as Apple Health and Google Fit—with regular fitness challenges, you can gain deeper insights into your performance and keep yourself motivated through friendly competition and clear progress tracking.