Stairs vs. Elevator

Good or bad, every decision you make will have a consequence of some sort.  But it’s not just the big decisions you make like whether or not to workout in a day, it’s all the little things you do.  I wanted to start a series of articles in which my goal will be to save you weight, dollars, and help promote healthy life choices. Stairs vs. elevator First, do you even know if your building has stairs?  I’ll give you a hint.  They do.   In fact, if the building has multiple levels, it is required to.   But the problem is that they’re often behind a closed door and not as accessible as the elevator.  You’re job should be to find these illusive stairs and replace your trips up and down the elevator with them. What to do:

1. Find the stairs
2. Stop being lazy and use them

Any given day, on average, I climb and descend over four dozen flights of stairs, or approximately 20 minutes a day of walking up and down the stairs.  This is a very rough figure and for purposes of writing this for the average person, let’s say, on average, I only climb and descend the stairs for 10 minutes a day.  Even after rounding down the amount of calories I burn by choosing the stairs over the elevator may surprise you. How it can help you:  According to (http://www.acefitness.org/calculators/physical-activity-calorie-calculator.aspx) someone weighting 165 pounds and walking on the stairs for 10 minutes burns approximately 100 calories.  That same person burns an estimated 12 calories standing for 10 minutes.  Now you don’t need to be a math major to see that by taking the stairs over the elevator for the same amount of time (even though in reality the elevator is faster), approximately 88 extra calories are burned.  Now take and apply those numbers over the course of a year (365 x 88) you could end up burning an extra 32,000+ calories.  Impressive right?  *Keep in mind that these figures are only averages and that individual weights/body types may affect these numbers. I’m not here to tell you how to live your life.  If you want to use the elevator, do it.  It won’t affect me.  But every time you cut a corner, every time you take a short cut, you are only hurting yourself.  Keep that in mind.  The big decisions may seem to affect you more than the little ones, but the consequences of little actions over the course of a year add up to be much greater than those of the big decisions.   Jack Burdick is majoring in Neuroscience at the University of Minnesota and along with hisweightlifting workouts, he competes in marathons and ultra-marathons (50 mile races) and is looking to earn a Cross-Fit title or to be recognized with The World’s Fittest Man title which is reserved for an ultra endurance power athlete.