Aerobic Exercise
Climb to
Health With Stair Climbing
By Harvey B. Simon, M.D. - author
of
The
No Sweat Exercise Plan
Stair-climbing is the
best-kept secret in exercise for health. It is a great way to add CME points
during the course of daily life, and it will help improve your leg strength and
balance as well as your heart and waistline.
By way of example, let me tell you
the story of Lewis Ripps. Lew is a trim seventy-two-year-old businessman who
runs six and a half miles a day along the hilly Berkshire roads when
he is at his Massachusetts
vacation home. But he’s in Massachusetts
only for most summer and autumn weekends and for occasional weekends during the
rest of the year. At home in New
Jersey, Lew doesn’t run -- nor does
he swim, bike, use exercise machines, or walk for health.
Mr. Ripps seems to be a weekend
warrior who is breaking all the rules. At any age, sporadic intense exercise is
a bad idea, and at age seventy-two, it’s an invitation for disaster. But
Lew is quite safe because he stays active the year round -- not through any
formal exercise program, but by walking stairs. And he does quite a lot of
that; in fact, he averages eighteen long, steep flights a day at the
New Jersey
manufacturing plant he manages.
Coaches, cardiologists, and
housewives have long been in on the secrets of stairs. Many football coaches
“ask” their players to charge up flight after flight of stadium steps
to get in shape, and other competitive athletes put gymnasium stairwells to
similar use. In the days before stress testing held sway, doctors would often
walk up stairs with patients to check their cardiopulmonary function. Even
today, cardiologists tell patients they are fit enough to have sex if they can
walk up two or three flights comfortably, and surgeons may clear patients for
lung operations if they can manage five or six flights. As for housewives,
taking care of a two- or three-story home is one reason American women outlive
their husbands by an average of 5.4 years.
What’s so special about
stairs? Researchers in Canada answered the
question by monitoring seventeen healthy male volunteers with an average age of
sixty-four while they walked, lifted weights, or climbed stairs. Stair-climbing
was the most demanding. It was twice as taxing as brisk walking on the level
and 50 percent harder than walking up a steep incline or lifting weights. And
peak exertion was attained much faster by climbing stairs than by walking,
which is why nearly everyone huffs and puffs going up stairs, at least until
their second wind kicks in after a few flights.
Because stairs are so taxing, only
the very young at heart should attempt to charge up long flights. But at a
slow, steady pace, stairs can be a health plus for the rest of us. Begin
modestly with a flight or two, and then escalate as you improve. Take the
stairs whenever you can; if you have a long way to go, walk partway, and then
switch to an elevator. Use the railing for balance and security (especially
going down), and don’t try the stairs after a heavy meal or if you feel
unwell.
Even at a slow pace, you’ll
earn CME points two to three times faster climbing stairs than walking briskly
on the level. The Harvard Alumni Study found that men who average at least
eight flights a day enjoy a 33 percent lower mortality rate than men who are
sedentary -- and that’s even better than the 22 percent lower death rate
men earned by walking 1.3 miles a day. That may be a bit optimistic, but even
if you don’t count on just eight flights a day to keep you healthy, you
should add stairs to your CME menu at every opportunity.
Want to stay well? Step right
up!
Reprinted
from The
No Sweat Exercise Plan: Lose Weight, Get Healthy, and Live
Longer by Harvey B. Simon, M.D. Copyright © 2006 President
and Fellows of Harvard
College.
Published by McGraw-Hill
Author
Harvey B. Simon, M.D., is an associate
professor of medicine at Harvard
Medical
School, a member of
the Health Sciences Faculty at MIT, and the founding editor of Harvard Men's Health Watch. He is a
graduate of Yale
College and
Harvard
Medical
School. Since
completing his postgraduate training at Massachusetts
General Hospital and
the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Simon has maintained an active clinical
practice at Massachusetts General
Hospital. He
is the award-winning author of five previous books on health and fitness and
received the London Prize for Excellence in Teaching from Harvard and
MIT. |
