Stair-Climb Your Way to Health
Step up to exercise snacking.
You may want to start recommending exercise snacking, particularly for people who believe they have no time for training. A few minutes of vigorous stair climbing, spread out in three bouts per day, three times a week, improved cardio fitness in formerly inactive young adults. McMaster University and UBC Okanagan researchers in British Columbia conducted the 6-week study.
“We know that sprint interval training works, but we were a bit surprised to see that the stair snacking approach was also effective,” said study author Jonathan Little, assistant professor at UBC Okanagan. “Vigorously climbing a few flights of stairs on your coffee or bathroom break during the day seems to be enough to boost fitness in people who were otherwise sedentary.”
Find the study in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism (2019; doi:10.1139/apnm-2018-0675).
Shirley Archer-Eichenberger, JD, MA
Shirley Archer, JD, MA, is an internationally acknowledged integrative health and mindfulness specialist, best-selling author of 16 fitness and wellness books translated into multiple languages and sold worldwide, award-winning health journalist, contributing editor to Fitness Journal, media spokesperson, and IDEA's 2008 Fitness Instructor of the Year. She's a 25-year industry veteran and former health and fitness educator at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who has served on multiple industry committees and co-authored trade books and manuals for ACE, ACSM and YMCA of the USA. She has appeared on TV worldwide and was a featured trainer on America's Next Top Model.
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