Simple Steps To Fitness
A couple of summers ago, John attended a conference in Pittsburgh, so on a whim, the kids and I decided we’d tag along too, and make a short vacation out of it. Pittsburgh has some pretty cool, family-oriented things to do (the Zoo/Aquarium and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History are aweome), so it was a fun trip.
Of course, when we travel, John and I like to get some semblance of a workout in, even if it’s nothing more than some pushups and calisthenics in the hotel room. But we were lucky in our choice of hotel: it had 8 floors, so we were able to get some good cardio sessions in, just by racing up and down the stairwell (which no one but us ever seemed to use).
In fact, since we were on the 7th floor, we made a point of taking the stairs going back and forth to our room, too…the kids took the elevator, so – just to annoy them – we’d race up (or down) the stairs to make sure we got to the designated floor before they did. We also took the stairs everywhere else we could…the kids were rolling their eyes by the end of the trip, and Number One Son dubbed us “Stair Whores.” That made me laugh, so I made sure we got a commemorative pic of the stairwell, to keep with our other vacation photos.
That’s why this article in the New York Times caught my eye…
EIGHTEEN years ago, Ronnie Guie considered buying a treadmill or a stair-climbing machine to stay in shape. Then one day on his lunch hour at Con Edison in Astoria, Queens, two co-workers invited Mr. Guie to take a walk to the top of the 10-floor building. He was breathing heavily by the time he got there, but was hooked: he had found his workout for free.
“For me, it’s a quick fix,” he said.
At 59, Mr. Guie says he still has the same waist size (30 inches) and weight range (150 to 155 pounds) that he did when he was 17, thanks to his five-day-a-week regimen. He climbs the concrete stairs usually 10 times or so in an hour, depending how much time he has. “I get the results out of it — and it’s not easy,” he said. “But I always feel great.”
…“Stair climbing will give you a little more bang for your buck because of the vertical component,” said Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise. Compared to jogging or cycling at a moderate pace without much of an incline, stair climbing, Dr. Bryant said, “will be a bit more challenging and therefore allow you to burn more calories for that same amount of time.”
One of the most evil exercises ever devised for me by my ex-trainer, Jerry, involved the stairs just outside the Rec Center fitness room. Unlike the hotel, the stairwell at the Rec only spanned two floors, but it was enough. Jerry had me hop up and down the stairs, one leg at a time. One “set” was two complete up/down trips (one for each leg), and I had to do 5 sets, without resting in between. Even worse, it was a race against the clock – I had to try to beat my previous time with each new session (it took me about 20 minutes initially, but I eventually got it down to 12). By the time I finished each bout, I’d be clutching the handrail, legs on fire, flushed and dripping with sweat. On a couple of occasions, people walking past even stopped to help me, because they thought I was hurt (why else would I be hopping up the stairs on one leg, looking like I was in pain?). 😀
So, while some caution has to be observed, you can get one hell of a workout on the stairs. If you’ve got a stairwell handy, it’s a neat, relatively low impact and completely cost-free alternative to more conventional forms of cardio.
