Friday 6 February 2009

Take the stairs!


I'm sure that, at some point, you resolved to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

Researchers from the University Hospital of Geneva in Switzerland decided to see what happens when people actually follow through on this resolution.

69 sedentary (less than 2 hrs exercise a week) employees were asked to exclusively take the stairs instead of the elevator for 12 weeks.

The result:

VO2 max (used to measure aerobic capacity) increased by 8.6%.
The mean increase of aerobic capacity corresponds to a 15% decrease in all-cause mortality risk.

Body fat decreased by 1.7%.

Waist circumference decreased by 1.8%.

Diastolic blood pressure decreased by 2.3%.

LDL (lousy) cholesterol decreased by 3.9%.

Although the results of this pilot study need to be confirmed in a larger randomised controlled trial,
maybe these results will motivate you to ditch the elevator...?!

1 comment:

Jme said...

My company will not even let us take the stairs! And the elevators are so slow! This would resolve everything!