City as Gym: Stairways to Hell

WHERE: Filbert Street Steps, Lyon Street Steps, South Side of Divisadero, Joaquin Miller Park

13 Downhill Dog Hills can juice up an outdoor yoga session by adding a cardio challenge. Use them as a makeshift prop: If your hamstrings are tight, sit facing downhill, the incline serving instead of a rolled blanket, as you do a seated forward bend. You’ll find other props on your ascent, like a short wall at the Summit park on Russian Hill, where you can use the Transamerica Pyramid as a focal point instead of a candle. The city noise helps you put a good yoga lesson into practice: acceptance of things outside of your control. —Laurie Sleep, Hiking Yoga

14 Step Dancing Dominate concrete stairs for more than just a calf-killer. Go up one set of stairs, like those on Lyon Street, in as many variations as you can think of—crossovers will work your hips, bunny hops your core; or crawl or wheelbarrow your way up for serious biceps power. —Sandra Possing, Basic Training

15 Eight-Minute Quads This move is called the Waterfall: Stand at the top of a set of stairs with your weight on your heels, take one step down, sit down, then stand up—and repeat. It sounds simple, but it’s a sneaker, working the glutes, quads, and abs—which are essential for lasting strength as opposed to short-lived explosive power. To make it tougher, add a 12-pound kettlebell (or sub it out with a nearby rock) and hold it in front of your sternum. The Filbert Street steps off er bay views and the chance of finding a rock if you need one. —Brandon Irvin, owner, Urban Fitness

16 Crocodile Crawl Don’t underestimate the number of ways that you can climb a hill. The crocodile walk works many muscles beyond the ones in your legs: Get in plank position and move your right knee laterally to touch your elbow; then do a push-up. Repeat on the other side, moving forward as you go, as if you’re stalking prey. The steeper the hill, the greater the workout. Go-getters can try Bernal Hill. —Pattee

17 Stair Ninjas For a sadistic workout, do a different exercise on each set of Liberty Hill’s six staircases. Some people have a love-hate relationship with the inchworm, but it’s worth the burn for back and hamstring flexibility and core strength. Do it up a short set of stairs by hinging at the waist and walking your hands out to push-up position while keeping your legs straight, then walking your feet in toward your hands. Repeat. If you’re in it for a ball-buster, bear-crawl up the next set. —Greg Bianchi, owner, Bianchi Fitness

18 Steep Attack The trick to San Francisco’s terrifying hills is to avoid tackling an entire hill at once—break each block down with a different plan of attack. You can end up training for a half-marathon on one hill if you do it right. Use pieces of street furniture—streetlights, no-parking signs—as distance meters, and plan your sprints in manageable chunks. Tiered hills (for instance, Noe Street between 18th and 21st Streets) are perfect for this because you can sprint a block, then cross the street at a walk as a way to measure your breather interval while revving up for the next one. —Bianchi

Veer off-road: Trails and trees over treadmills and weights (Exercises 1-6)
Take back the streets: That’s not a bike rack, it’s an ab machine (Exercises 7-12)
Stairways to hell: Gaining power is literally an uphill battle (Exercises 13-18)
Reclaim Recess: Playgrounds make the best obstacle courses (Exercises 19-24)
Kick up some sand: The beach as resistance band (Exercises 25-30)
Boot Camps Unlimited: All the trainers in one place

Originally published in the January 2014 issue of San Francisco

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