Mind Blowing Facts About Stair Climbing That Could Change Your Life!

8 flights of stairs per day sounds quite insignificant doesn’t it? It can’t make that much of an impact on your health, right? Wrong! – Taking 8 flights of stairs throughout the course of a full day has a huge impact on your overall health and your life expectancy. So if you’re still not convinced about how a small change can have huge life-changing effects, keep reading because we might just surprise you.

With health concerns around the impact of sedentary lifestyles, now understood to be more of a problem than smoking – there has never been a better time to improve workplace health. So whether you are an employee working in an office with stairs, or you are an employer looking to introduce a healthier working environment, these medically proven facts show the power of 8 flights per day!

Mind-blowing Fact No. 1:

8 flights of stairs lowers average early mortality risk by 33% *

Yes, you read that correctly, you can reduce the likelihood of dying earlier just by choosing the stairs instead of the lift. We’re not saying you need to walk the equivalent height of The Shard in steps, we are telling you that just 8 flights can change your fate.

Mind-blowing Fact No. 2: 

Seven minutes stair climbing a day can halve the risk of heart attack over 10 years **

You can reduce the chances of your loved ones receiving the devastating news that you have had a heart attack by 50% with just 7 minutes of stair climbing each day.

7 minutes – that equates to checking your Facebook timeline to see what your friends had for their dinner. It is probably the same amount of time that you spend choosing your outfit for the day or trying a different hairstyle. You probably spend more time reading promotional emails that add no value to your life or watching cute videos of puppies.

Mind-blowing Fact No. 3:

Just two minutes extra stair climbing a day is enough to stop average middle age weight gain ***

We all know it gets harder to shift the pounds when we get to a certain age but does that mean that we just give it up as a lost cause? Weight gain is not just about how you look in that outfit or finding a better angle for your photo selfies; weight gain has huge implications on your health.

According to the BMI Index, for someone that is 5 ft 4 inches tall, a weight of 180 lbs and over is classed as obese. Or for someone that is 5 ft 10 inches tall, a weight of 210 lbs and over would classify as obese. And anyone of these heights that weigh in 10-20 lbs less will fall into the overweight category. These are not just pointless statistics that the government try to scare us with; these are well-researched guides to show you what that middle age weight gain can mean from a health perspective.

So what would you choose? Factoring in 8 flights of stairs into your day or the alternative? Employers should be encouraging initiatives like taking 8 flights a day to help improve the lives of their workforce.

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Sources

* According to the The Harvard Alumni Study (2009)

** Yu, S., Yarnell, J. W. G., Sweetnam, P. M., Murray, L. (2003) What level of physical activity protects against premature cardiovascular death? The Caerphilly study

*** Healy, Genevieve N., Wijndaele, Katrien., Dunstan, David W., Shaw, Jonathan E., Salmon, Jo., Zimmet, Paul Z., Owen, Neville. (2008) Objectively Measured Sedentary Time, Physical Activity, and Metabolic Risk. The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study