Experts are looking at an “old-fashion” way of increasing your fitness: using the stairs.
Dr. Ishak A. Mansi of Louisiana State University is the lead author of a study that is encouraging building designers to reconsider how they place stairs in their work. They say that as it is, there are several factors that discourage people from using them. They are often tucked away and hard to find. And on a subtler note, stairs are often thought to be only used for fire escapes.
One interesting way Mansi and his colleagues, including his architect wife Nardine Mansi, say that designers can encourage stair use is with music. Other factors that discourage the use of stairs is no air conditioning and heavy doors.
The researchers didn’t mention the fact that it’s harder to walk up stairs than it is to push an elevator button. It will take a little more to shift the public’s habits. However, the researchers say that even just a moderate increase in the use of stairs can help solve the obesity epidemic.
(via: The New York Times)