It’s summer holiday season and for a lot of people that means trying to get beach body ready, asap! But how do we incorporate enough exercise into our day if we don’t have much time to spare? The simple answer is to make changes to our current daily routines, which could mean walking instead of driving those short journeys. Or even better, start climbing more stairs!

Did you know that stair climbing actually burns more calories per minute than jogging?

This is a particularly great option for people that have sedentary, office based jobs – by choosing the stairs over the lift just a few times a day, you will soon see the amazing physical effects on your body.

Here are just a few reasons that make stair climbing the perfect way of getting in shape in time for summer:

• Stair climbing doesn’t require hours in the gym, expensive equipment, or even a change of clothes! It’s free, fun, quick and easy and you will enjoy benefits with immediate effect
• Stair climbing targets core muscle strength – glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, abs and calves are all exercised and toned, helping to sculpt some of our common problem areas; thighs, bums and tums
• A person weighing 160 lbs. burns 102 calories walking up and down stairs for 10 minutes
• You can do it whilst at work and never need to wait around for a lift!

Other health improvements:

Weight loss and toning up are not the only huge benefits; stair climbing can have dramatic impact on overall health:

• Just seven minutes of stair climbing a day can more than half the risk of a heart attack over 10 years
• Climbing just eight flights of stairs a day lowers average early mortality risk by 33%
• Dr Harvey Simon, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says: “Walking up stairs is one of the best-kept secrets in preventive medicine”.

StepJockey has been working with businesses to help build awareness of the many great benefits of stair climbing through their innovative workplace health initiatives. For example, they provide an app to help you monitor calorie burning s

pecifically using your workplace staircases, as well as a host of other tools.

If you start to ‘step up’ your exercise routine now with the help of StepJockey, you will be beach body ready in no time!

For more information on StepJockey please see here