werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) (01/12/86)
<><>
For those of you who would like to lose a few pounds and have
discovered that diet is worthless at best and onerous at the least, there
is only one choice -- increase your expenditure of calories through exercise.
But, you say, exercise takes time, and I'm too busy. Well here is a
way to exercise and expend no extra time -- in fact, you may even save time.
Not only that, but you can improve your mental well-being at the same time.
How many minutes a day do you spend waiting for elevators: if you're
like most people, more than a few. Waiting like that can produce anxiety
(erroneously called 'stress' in the lay press), which can raise your blood
pressure, bring out latent neurosis, and indirectly shorten your fingernails.
Instead, you can take the steps, gain the exercise you so richly need, and
if your building's elevators work like mine, gain extra time.
But what are the numbers, you may ask. Well, the average person
uses about 100 Calories per waking hour. Stair-climbing uses about 10 Calories
a floor. And at a walking pace, 10 flights can be walked leisurely in a minute.
Imagine that, using as much calories in a minute as you normally do in an
hour. (The 10 includes Up and Down, but it works out to 9 up/1down, or so.)
Caveats: if you are out of shape, do not try to run up 40 flights of
stairs. Like any exercise, this needs to be worked into. Also, some acute
problems starting include Quadriceps tenditinitis and Suprapatellar Bursitis
(in layman's terms, Sore Knees). These can be avoided by easing into the
regimen and treated by Aspirin or Ibuprofen (Tylenol works less well, since
it only relieves the pain and not the inflammation.) Common complaints
also include Calf pain on the stairs - this is due to poor blood flow and
improves with time - you can either rest, and continue, or take the elevator
the rest of the way, and try to do better some other day.
If you want, you can call this "The Craig Werner 'Give Up Your Diet
and Your Elevator' Weight Loss Plan," but since I don't plan to publish a
mass-market paperback about it, you don't have to call it anything in
particular.
--
Craig Werner
!philabs!aecom!werner
"It's hard to argue with someone who knows what he's talking about."btb@mtuxo.UUCP (Bruce Burger) (01/16/86)
> Here is a way to exercise and expend no extra time ... > How many minutes a day do you spend waiting for elevators: ... > Instead, you can take the steps, gain the exercise you so richly need, and > if your building's elevators work like mine, gain extra time. At the Toronto Science Museum I once saw an electronic questionnaire that estimated your life expectancy. One of the questions was "How many flights of stairs do you climb a day?" I took the hint (well, when I feel like walking)... --Bruce Burger AT&T Information Systems Freehold, NJ {...ihnp4!}mtuxo!btb
prastein@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU (01/17/86)
But how many stairs are in a flight? A building with 15' ceilings is likely to burn more calories than one with 8' ones. :-)