Stairs are climbed step by step. ~ Turkish proverbMore than 7,000 people tackled the 1,776 steps of the CN Tower in Toronto several weeks ago, as part of the 20th annual fundraiser for the World Wildlife Federation. Another thousand took on the 802-step Calgary Tower on behalf of the Alberta Wilderness Association. No doubt, they all burned a few hundred calories, and exercised a series of important muscle groups.
But you don’t have to work in a skyscraper to get the benefits of a stair workout. Researchers in Ireland have been studying the benefits of dashing up the stairs periodically over the course of a workday, and they’ve observed surprising fitness gains.
“I think the key thing here,” says Colin Boreham, a professor at the University College Dublin Institute for Sport and Health, “is that stair-climbing is one of the few everyday activities at a moderate to high intensity that one can do surreptitiously without having to change, use special equipment or look foolish.”
Charity stair-climbs are an emerging phenomenon. The motto of Towerrunning is “Take the stairs and not the elevator" and it lists over 100 events around the world.
It's interesting to think about the ascending/descending steps in our life: the tedious, the scenic, the educational, the adventurous, and the hopeful.
Any thoughts about the steps in your life?
