Hello Welcome to the Simple Steps to Improved Health Challenge Day 2 Take the Stairs
Reminder to choose 1 of the first two actions to work on this week starting today or whatever day you want the week to start on for you. See Day 1 for more information about the challenge.
Challenge Day 2 Take the Stairs
How Does Taking the Stairs Improve Health
Depending on how many floors of stairs you have at work, it can make a contribution to your recommended daily physical activity needs. You use about 5 to 11 cal per minute of climbing the stairs.
It can help to strengthen bone density, especially for post-menopausal women. Stair climbing is good for your heart and cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength, and joint flexibility.
It can also help with stress relief especially after a particularly awful meeting. Stair climbing releases endorphins that help to decrease stress, help you relax, and get you more alert and energized for the tasks ahead.
How to Take Action
First, notice the opportunities to take the stairs.
Do you have stairs at work? If they are only a couple of floors then take them every day. Maybe it’s 10 floors to your office, then take the stairs up 2 or 3 floors then grab the elevator for the rest.
What about at the mall. Do a flight of stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. The other option is to walk up the escalator instead of letting it move you along.
Stairs in your house? Don’t dread taking the laundry up to the rooms, know you are improving your health. If you have a pile of stuff to go upstairs and time, then take one thing up at a time and see how quickly you can do it.
There is always the opportunity to do the stair stepper at the gym. It’s fun to keep your eyes open for the opportunity to do stairs in your everyday life.
Go Do it
Do your best and start to challenge yourself with stairs. Maybe the first day you decide to take stairs at work and only do it once. That is great. Good for you. In no time you will be doing it many more times. Just take it one step at a time. You’ve got this.
I hope you are enjoying the Simple Steps to Improved Health Challenge. Comment and let me know how you are doing.
How many sets of stairs did you start with at the beginning of the week, how many are you doing at the end of the week?
