an exercise device has foot supports on which a user stands for performing a stair stepping exercise alone , or a cross country skiing exercise alone , or simultaneously a stair stepping exercise and a cross country skiing exercise . linkage support frames each have a first linkage and a second linkage pivotally connected to each other for maintaining foot supports in a horizontal plane . a fluid cylinder provides a mechanism for resisting the vertical movement of the foot supports . manually gripped poles are mounted to move in coordination with generally horizontal movement of foot supports . separate embodiments of the invention are shown in figs . 5 - 13 for performing simultaneously a stair stepping exercise and a cross country skiing or walking exercise . an alternative preferred embodiment of the invention which may be folded downwardly for low vertical profile storage is illustrated in fig . 14 .