Recipe of the Week

Fun, Facts & Fitness from Mary Morris MSc.

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I have always rated the idea that we only need to do short bursts of intense activity to get BIG health benefits and it was not very long ago that we discovered that just three minutes of very intense exercise a week (yes – a week!) gave us some important health improvements, particularly related to our heart. 

Of course, we need to do more than just that three minutes if we want to call ourselves truly 'fit and in good shape', but a recent newspaper article featured the enormous value of simply climbing up a flight of stairs. Whilst we all know this, it prompted me to look at the most recent research and to try to get us into the mindset that whenever we see a set of stairs, either at home, in a shop, at a hotel or in our workplace, we use them!

Many years ago, I remember showing my group of students a video of an underground station in London where some inspired person had put a sign at the bottom of the stairs right next to an escalator. It read something like:                        

 "It is good for your health to climb these stairs!"

Before the sign went up, and in the first video, we saw the stairs completely empty and the escalator completely full. When the sign appeared in the second video the almost complete reverse happened – everybody who was able was using the stairs! The power of clear public health messaging! 

Now I am only giving you half a story as I have never seen that kind of signage in any London station that I have used since, but my hope is that a few people really carried on doing that in the long term and reaped some important health benefits. In fact, I am tempted to put up my own signs in some strategic places in my local community!
 

Why is stair climbing so good for us?  

• It challenges multiple muscle groups: quads at the front of the thigh, gluteal muscles at the back of the hip, and the calves in the lower leg. These muscles I call our 'big engines' as we use them to walk, (as well as stand up, sit down, climb and get up and down from the floor), and if we can't walk then every part of our body gets weaker!
• Stair climbing is one of the best activities to help our ability to balance, reducing the risk of falling.
• It gives us a short burst of high-intensity activity that leaves us feeling breathless, improving our heart health.
• Taking our body weight upwards against gravity creates a resistance that promotes our bone strength.
• The extra flow of blood to the brain will improve our mental health.
• If we can safely and effectively navigate up and down stairs, we can stay more active generally in everyday life.
• It is quick and easy to fit into our life, there is no equipment and no gym membership needed!

So, as you can see the reasons are extensive and my hope is that as we get older we do not move into a bungalow before we really need to!

 

How much do we need to do?

Using the stairs has been used in scientific studies because of its obvious clear benefits, but how much do we need to do to achieve any kind of health improvement?

There was a study conducted in the UK with 458,860 adult participants with an average age of 56 years, who were mostly female, with the aim to assess their risk for developing a heart condition. One of the requirements was to find out how often they climbed the stairs every day. They found that those who climbed more than 5 flights (or 50 steps) per day had a 20% lower risk of developing a heart condition such as stroke, heart attack and blood clots. This seemed a lot fewer times than I thought it would be, as personally, I must be going up and down stairs more like 10 - 15 times a day! (A flight of stairs is deemed to be 13 - 16 steps)

 

The Stairs Test

Some research findings were presented at a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology in 2020. This study developed a Stairs Test to help doctors assess a patient’s heart health. The study concluded that a ‘stairs test’ is an easy and quick way to assess the condition of the heart. The study was conducted on four flights of stairs (a flight containing 15 stairs = 60 steps). Patients were timed only as they climbed up the stairs, and those who completed the test in less than 40-45 seconds were linked with a lower mortality rate. In contrast, those who took 90 seconds or longer to complete the test were 30% more likely to die in the following 10 years.

So, I did my own test (no surprises there!). The flight of stairs in my house is 13 steps so it took me 4½ flights to complete the 60 steps. I only recorded a time on the way up, using the stopwatch on my phone. Thankfully I completed the test in 39.26 seconds so, hopefully, my demise is not due any time soon! Not a scientifically accurate test, of course, but it is certainly an indication. Why not try it yourself but only if you are generally quite fit, please, and are used to using the stairs.

So clearly our ability to climb a flight of stairs is one of the great markers of health. For a long time now, in my Weekly Fitness Challenge I have sometimes encouraged you to go up and down stairs 3-5 times as a quick and intense push on your heart.  Now you know why!

Did you know... 

The deepest station on the London Underground is Hampstead which lies a huge 58.5 metres down under Hampstead Heath and has 320 stairs going down to it. It's a very long way down and passengers are often rightly worried about the lifts breaking down and the possibility that they might have to climb the stairs all the way back up. However, Hampstead is only the furthest down as it measures from a starting point at the top of a massive hill. If you are looking for the station deepest below sea level that title goes to Waterloo's Jubilee Line platforms which are just 26 metres down.

Most underground stations have long since had their lifts replaced with escalators which are an easy way to travel unless they break down. Because of their pitch and step-height they can be remarkably challenging if you have to climb them "manually." There are, of course, always still the traditional spiral staircases, normally now labelled "Emergency Exit" and carrying a warning sign of how strenuous the climb might be, although if you can stand the strain, you will often find some delightfully unrefurbished tiles and signs to enjoy on your journey back up to street level.


P.S. If you do happen to be interested in old London Underground tube stations and their tiles, have a look at Hidden London Hangouts on Youtube where presenters from the London Transport Museum explore the abandoned and hidden areas of well-known Underground stations. You can even book to go on public tours of some of the most fascinating long-closed stations like Strand and Down Street.