Stairs Climbing
Tops in burning calories and providing cardiorespiratory fitness, stair climbing is not generally thought of as an exercise. Stairs are available in home and offices, but normally we try to avoid unnecessary trips. With a positive action program you can make that flight or two of stairs beneficial-carry packages up one at a time, go back down for the next. While going down is called negative exercise, it works a new set of muscles and is equally valuable. Gradually increase the number of trips per day, including consecutive climbs, and in a few months, 12 trips will seem easy. A sedentary executive who can climb 3 flight in a half a minute (2 steps at a time is even better) and does that 10 times a day has full adequate cadiorepiratory fitness program spending only 5 minutes a day.
Breaking Away
Climbing gets you up, walking gets you out. With congested city traffic moving at 3 miles per hour, you could beat beat the bus downtown while saving wear, tear and a fare. When you can walk 2 miles in half an hour, your conditioning is good. Maintaining the cadence and lengthening the distance to 4 miles puts you in top shape. To increase fitness you can either ad hill (keep your cadence up, just shorten your stride) or break into jogging.
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JANUARY 29
