Is my workout the equivalent of a step aerobic workout?

OneStepCloser

New Member
Hi, Cathe! :) I decided to get back into cardio this summer and decided step aerobics would be the way to do it since I really enjoyed them when I was younger. Unfortunately my exercise step has vanished and so I decided perhaps I could use my garage steps. They're just a couple of 6" lightly carpeted wooden stairs. I got it in my head I'd like to build up the stamina to do 100 flights (or 50 floors) of stairs. Reading I found that a flight of stairs typically contains 12 stairs. So I built up to this:

I stand on the bottom step and:
Step up with the left leg, step up with the right leg,
step down with the left leg, step down with the right leg.
10x.
Then I:
Step up with the right leg, step up with the left leg,
step down with the right leg, step down with the left leg.
10x.

I do 60 sets of 10 on each leg. This adds up to stepping up a total of 1200 times or 4800 steps altogether. I average about 88 steps per minute. The whole routine takes (usually) 54-56 minutes but is sometimes as short as 51-52 minutes and on rare occasion as long an hour. I do leg curls as a warm-up and cool-down, 100x each leg. I also do several stretches before and after.

My question (sorry it took so long to get to it) is how do I track my workout? While I remember enjoying step aerobics I can't really remember well enough to compare it physically. I'd like to approximate how many calories I am burning but I hesitate to calculate my calories as step aerobics because I'm afraid they don't fit the profile? Do they? If so would this be low or high intensity? Is there a calculator you can recommend where I can put in my stats and time exercising and get a reasonably close approximation of my calories? I know, obviously, that they vary but I'd like to get some idea of how I am doing. I do hope to get a new exercise step for Christmas but I really like this workout and so I'd love to know. :)

Thank you so much for reading my question!
 

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