I believe it. I took a job that involved taking the subway, and opted to start taking the stairs in and out of the station rather than the escalator. It was agonizing the first few weeks, but...
I believe it. I took a job that involved taking the subway, and opted to start taking the stairs in and out of the station rather than the escalator. It was agonizing the first few weeks, but after a few months I felt more fit than I'd been in years just from 6 flights of stairs a day. By the end of the first year as I pushed myself to go faster and faster, I was able to run up three flights of stairs taking the steps two at a time. I never would have opted to do that in a vacuum, but when the stairs were right there and I needed to be at the top of them, it was easy to just choose them.
I'm very curious about how well the studies they're citing established the direction of causation here. I don't necessarily doubt the results, I think it's pretty well-established scientifically...
I'm very curious about how well the studies they're citing established the direction of causation here. I don't necessarily doubt the results, I think it's pretty well-established scientifically that regular physical activity is good for your health (and I like that they pointed out that exercise isn't actually great for weight loss in the article!), but it's also the case that people who are already in bad health or severely overweight are more likely to struggle to regularly climb stairs than someone who's already in good shape. From personal experience, climbing stairs was the first physical activity to be severely impacted by the mobility and stamina losses from my untreated hypothyroidism back before I was diagnosed. Since you can't really run a blind study on climbing stairs, the research into this must be using correlational evidence, and while that definitely doesn't mean it's invalid (after all, the link between smoking and lung cancer was also established from correlational evidence), I'm curious how they attempted to account for this in their study designs (though I understand that info not making it to the popsci article lol).
That said, I appreciate this article's emphasis on the idea that regular physical activity doesn't necessarily need to be "exercise" to be the sort of thing that is good for your health. I think that's a good way to frame the issue and "four minutes a day" feels way more approachable than the usual "thirty minutes of exercise X times a week" type advice I often here.
Movement tracking studies show even tiny, regular bursts of effort — as short as 30 seconds — can capture many of the health benefits of the gym. Climbing two to three flights of stairs a few times per day could change your life. Experts call it VILPA, or vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity.
“The message now is that all activity counts,” said Martin Gibala, a professor and chair of the kinesiology department at McMaster University in Canada. And perhaps nothing’s better than stairs.
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The villagers of Sardinia, a rugged part of Italy, stand out. A typical octogenarian engages in daily physical activity equivalent to climbing many flights of stairs. When researchers looked at what was behind Sardinians’ extraordinary longevity, three factors — terrain slope, distance to workplace and working as a shepherd (who often climb more than 1,000 feet per day) — were most strongly correlated with longer lives. In some regions, the global pattern of men dying earlier than women was virtually absent.
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Over the past decade, studies have shown the potency of going up and down stairs each day to boost your health. It doesn’t take much. Just taking the stairs daily is associated with lower body weight and cutting the risk of stroke and heart disease — the leading (and largely preventable) cause of death globally. While it may not burn many calories (most exercise doesn’t), it does appear to extend your health span. Leg power — a measure of explosive muscle strength — was a stronger predictor of brain aging than any lifestyle factors measured in a 2015 study in the journal Gerontology.
Subsequent studies put a finer point on it: Just nine to 10 brief bouts of vigorous activity per day — averaging 30 to 45 seconds each — lowered the risk of dying by about 40 percent in non-exercisers, according to a 2022 study in Britain. Benefits increased as people exercised longer, but most of the risk reduction occurred during the first few minutes of daily activity.
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Four minutes daily. Essentially a few flights of stairs at a vigorous pace. That’s the effort Stamatakis found delivered significant health benefits in that 2022 study of British non-exercisers.
“We saw benefits from the first minute,” Stamatakis said.
For Americans, the effect is even more dramatic: a 44 percent drop in deaths, according to a peer-reviewed paper recently accepted for publication.
“We showed for the first time that vigorous intensity, even if it’s done as part of the day-to-day routine, not in a planned and structured manner, works miracles,” Stamatakis said. “The key principle here is start with one, two minutes a day. The focus should be on making sure that it’s something that you can incorporate into your daily routine. Then you can start thinking about increasing the dose.”
Intensity is the most important factor. You won’t break a sweat in a brief burst, but you do need to feel it. A highly conditioned athlete might need to sprint to reach vigorous territory. But many people only need to take the stairs. Use your breathing as a guide, Stamatakis said: If you can sing, it’s light intensity. If you can speak but not sing, you’re entering moderate exertion. If you can’t hold a conversation, it’s vigorous.
I believe it. I took a job that involved taking the subway, and opted to start taking the stairs in and out of the station rather than the escalator. It was agonizing the first few weeks, but after a few months I felt more fit than I'd been in years just from 6 flights of stairs a day. By the end of the first year as I pushed myself to go faster and faster, I was able to run up three flights of stairs taking the steps two at a time. I never would have opted to do that in a vacuum, but when the stairs were right there and I needed to be at the top of them, it was easy to just choose them.
I'm very curious about how well the studies they're citing established the direction of causation here. I don't necessarily doubt the results, I think it's pretty well-established scientifically that regular physical activity is good for your health (and I like that they pointed out that exercise isn't actually great for weight loss in the article!), but it's also the case that people who are already in bad health or severely overweight are more likely to struggle to regularly climb stairs than someone who's already in good shape. From personal experience, climbing stairs was the first physical activity to be severely impacted by the mobility and stamina losses from my untreated hypothyroidism back before I was diagnosed. Since you can't really run a blind study on climbing stairs, the research into this must be using correlational evidence, and while that definitely doesn't mean it's invalid (after all, the link between smoking and lung cancer was also established from correlational evidence), I'm curious how they attempted to account for this in their study designs (though I understand that info not making it to the popsci article lol).
That said, I appreciate this article's emphasis on the idea that regular physical activity doesn't necessarily need to be "exercise" to be the sort of thing that is good for your health. I think that's a good way to frame the issue and "four minutes a day" feels way more approachable than the usual "thirty minutes of exercise X times a week" type advice I often here.
From the article:
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Paywall bypass link, for anyone who desires it.