Short bouts
of stairclimbing throughout the day can boost health
McMaster University
It just got harder to avoid
exercise. A few minutes of stair climbing, at short intervals throughout the
day, can improve cardiovascular health, according to new research from
kinesiologists at McMaster University and UBC Okanagan.
The findings, published in the
journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, suggest that
virtually anyone can improve their fitness, anywhere, any time.
"The findings make it even
easier for people to incorporate 'exercise snacks' into their day," says
Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster and senior author on the
study.
"Those who work in office towers or live in apartment buildings can vigorously climb a few flights of stairs in the morning, at lunch, and in the evening and know they are getting an effective workout."
Previous studies had shown that
brief bouts of vigorous exercise, or sprint interval training (SIT), are
effective when performed as a single session, with a few minutes of recovery
between the intense bursts, requiring a total time commitment of 10 minutes or
so.
For this study, researchers set out
to determine if SIT exercise snacks, or vigorous bouts of stairclimbing
performed as single sprints spread throughout the day would be sufficient
enough to improve cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), an important healthy marker
that is linked to longevity and cardiovascular disease risk.
One group of sedentary young adults
vigorously climbed a three-flight stairwell, three times per day, separated by
one to four hours of recovery. They repeated the protocol three times each week
over the course of six weeks. The researchers compared the change in their
fitness to a control group which did not exercise.
"We know that sprint interval
training works, but we were a bit surprised to see that the stair snacking
approach was also effective," says Jonathan Little, assistant professor at
UBC's Okanagan campus and study co-author.
"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 are otherwise sedentary."
"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 are otherwise sedentary."
In addition to being more fit, the
stair climbers were also stronger compared to their sedentary counterparts at
the end of the study, and generated more power during a maximal cycling test.
In future, researchers hope to
investigate different exercise snacking protocols with varying recovery times,
and the effect on other health-related indicators such as blood pressure and
glycemic control.