For those of us who rarely take more than a few flights of stairs at a time, it's hard to imagine the determination required to complete the annual "Run-Up" competition.
Each year, participants race up the Empire State Building's 86 floors--a total of 1,576 stairs. The most recent winner reached the observation deck in an astonishing 10 minutes, 7 seconds.
But even if you're not quite ready to scale the Empire State Building, stair climbing can provide an excellent workout. According to a recent New York Times article, it burns more calories than jogging or cycling without an incline. And if you stick to running up the stairs (that means taking the elevator down), stair climbing is surprisingly low-impact.
The Times article notes that, due to security concerns, some buildings in New York City have closed their stairwells except in emergencies. But if taking the stairs is still an option in your office building, why not challenge your employees to give up the elevators for a week? Who knows--you might inspire someone to become the next Rocky Balboa!
3 comments:
We held a program called Fitness for the Busy Professional today and everyone came out of the meeting and took the elevator instead of the stairs. Sigh... I'm going to calculate the calorie burn of stair climbing for an average man and woman and start challenging our Biggest Losers to take the stairs.
I love this. Using the stairs what a novel idea. I encourgage my clients to make small changes that have a large impact over time. This is one I'm going to encourage. Thanks
Chris Martin
I am 52 years old and I love stair climbing. I climb the CN tower in Toronto twice a year for charity, and my best time is 13:10 for 1776 steps. I train on the TD tower's stairs, 1000 steps, in the weeks before the CN climb. I go non-stop, 2 steps all the way, and sprint the last 14 flights. It's brutal, and I love it!
Peter Roth
Post a Comment