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Is Stair Walking the Ultimate Fitness Hack for Busy Schedules?
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Jun 25, 2025
If you’re constantly asking yourself, “What’s a good workout if I have no time?” stair walking might be your answer. It’s fast, effective, free, and waiting just outside (or inside) your door. In a world where every minute counts, stair walking offers one of the most efficient and time-saving fitness options available. You don’t need a gym membership or fancy gear—just a staircase and a few spare minutes. Let’s break down why this simple workout might be the best-kept secret in quick fitness—and why you should start stepping up today. 👉 Click here to read more about Why Stair Walking Is One of the Best Workouts for Busy People (https://reluctantlowcarblife.com/why-stair-walking-is-one-of-the-best-workouts-for-busy-people/) #ReluctantLowCarbLife #StairWalkingWorkout #QuickFitnessTips #BusyLifestyleFitness #NoGymNeeded #EfficientWorkouts #LowCarbLiving #EveryStepCounts Support the show (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2029615/support)
View Video Transcript
0:06
hi this is Anita from the Reluctant Low
0:08
Carb Life you know at the Reluctant Low
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Carb Life we're all about trying to talk
0:12
about things which can be easy for
0:14
people to do too we realize and
0:16
understand that people have busy lives
0:18
and as when we have busy lives you know
0:21
sometimes we get busy or or you know you
0:23
get tired and maybe you don't fit things
0:26
in that you want to be able to fit in
0:27
maybe for example you're not able to fit
0:29
in as much fitness as you want to fit
0:31
into your day so one of the things that
0:34
you can do and especially if you live in
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a house or a place that has a lot of
0:38
stairs is to climb stairs i actually
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live in a building here i'm here in
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Hanoi Vietnam and I have five flights of
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stairs so I have a lot of stairs that
0:49
need to be climbed up in many parts of
0:51
Europe there's many apartment buildings
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there where they have no elevator and
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people live on the fifth floor and
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that's what they do they climb the
0:59
stairs all the time in a lot of places
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in the west like in America we wouldn't
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dream of this i mean nobody wants to you
1:06
know be climbing the stairs but actually
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stair climbing is quite good for us and
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here are some of the reasons why busy
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people should choose stair walking first
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of all number one it's incredibly
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efficient it's a very efficient way to
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be able to get cardio and strength in in
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just 10 or 15 minutes it's always
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available in other words you know at
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home at work out in the public you can
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always find ways to be able to take
1:31
stairs over taking an elevator or an
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escalator it builds real world strength
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in other words it you know it engages
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your quads your glutes your calves your
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core and it mimics the movement of
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patterns of real life activities such as
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you know picking up groceries or running
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to catch a train you know it's
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functional fitness at its best stair
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climbing is actually cardio and
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resistance in one it's you know unlike a
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flat walk stairs create natural
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resistance you're you know lifting your
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body weight against gravity it turns
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stair walking into a hybrid cardio
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strength workout which saves even more
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time you can do it in bursts you don't
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have to do it all at once you can say
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"Okay I'm gonna you know walk up these
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flights of stairs in the morning i'm
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going to do it at noon i'm going to do
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it you know before evening time i'm
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going to do it in these bursts i'm going
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to walk up and down these stairs." You
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don't really have to change clothes to
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do it you can you know do it in whatever
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clothes you're in so you can you know
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incorporate into your daily life you
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know there's lots of benefits for it you
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can burn 8 to 11 calories per minute of
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stair walking
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just 10 minutes can elevate heart rate
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and build strength
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you know all you need are stairs you
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just need some stairs a lot of times you
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know in the west we shy away from stairs
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we think like ah I don't want to take
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those stairs you know we maybe become a
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little bit lazy when it comes to taking
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stairs but but actually all you need are
2:57
just the stairs it can engage your
2:58
glutes your quads your calves and your
3:01
core it improves circulation heart rate
3:04
and endurance
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and you know it can actually support
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your mental health it can just you'll
3:11
feel better once you have climbed up
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those stairs i want to make a little
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comment here about exercise and mental
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health a bit you have to say this
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morning I sort of woke up a little bit
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like you know so much happening in the
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world so much going on there's so much
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uncertainty and I was feeling kind of a
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little down and a little bit depressed
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and I thought "Oh I need to get up and
3:33
go swimming." And I'd have to say like
3:36
when I got in the pool and I I think I
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did 1,500 meters this morning after I
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got out I felt better you know exercise
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works so whether it's just climbing
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those few stairs if you're feeling kind
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of down get up and move and climb those
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stairs it will mentally help you feel
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better you know just exercise and
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movement will help you feel better so if
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you're feeling down or feeling depressed
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one of the best things you can do is get
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up and move and you know I'm not a
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doctor you know listen of course always
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to your doctor as we say but that is
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just what I myself personally have found
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can help me if I'm ever feeling down or
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lonely or upset or anything is to kind
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of get up and start moving it always
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seems to help one of the great things
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about stair walking is that if you're a
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very busy person even 5 to 10 minutes is
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great so even if you can just get in
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five or 10 minutes or if you work at an
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office instead of taking the elevator
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take the stairs if you're going shopping
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at a mall or somewhere instead of taking
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the escalator take the stairs if you're
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going somewhere else you see the stairs
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don't shy away take the stairs a lot of
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times I know we shy away from the stairs
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and instead of wanting to have stairs we
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will we'll kind of like sort of ignore
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them I guess and and try to take the
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easiest way in i know that I have and
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one of the reasons why I'm a great
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believer in this is I was working with a
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coach a physio because I have some bad
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knees his name is Dr michael and he's
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from Denmark and you know I was you know
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telling about my knees and he said "Well
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what you need to do is start climbing
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stairs." I thought "But my knees hurt."
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But I have to say after I started doing
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more stair climbing they hurt less and I
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really sort of had this bad attitude
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towards the stairs for quite a while i
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kind of like didn't really want to take
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them my you know was kind of feeling a
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little bit lazy and having going up and
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down stairs all the time because like I
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said before there's five flights in in
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my house and sometimes be like I don't
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really don't want to go up there because
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I don't want to have to climb the stairs
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I don't want have to move I don't have
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to do anything and it was just mentally
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this whole thing about the stairs is I
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sort of had this mental block about the
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stairs when I was think about the stairs
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and he really kind of forced me
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challenging me to do 15 and then
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building up to 25 flights a day and you
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know it's quite interesting because
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talking to a lot of My American friends
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they were like "That's crazy you mean
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your physio is asking you to do you know
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15 to 25 flights of stairs that's nuts."
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But yet you know talking to him and a
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lot of my other friends are more
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European they'd be just like "Yeah
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that's great that's wonderful." You know
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and so it's really is a matter of
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attitude i sort of learned throughout
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all of this it was a matter of my
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attitude how was I going to you know
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think about these stairs was I going to
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think about them as a burden or pain or
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something I don't want to do so I'm
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going to be grudgingly doing it or is it
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going to be an opportunity for me to be
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able to take these stairs and I have to
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say since taking them my knees have
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actually gotten stronger i'm actually
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feeling better and they have gotten
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easier and easier and easier and I'm
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still working on my stair you know on on
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getting better on my stairs but it's
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really comes down to the attitude of you
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know not you know looking at those
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stairs as an obstacle but instead
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looking at them as an opportunity no
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matter you know what your fitness level
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is no matter how hard or difficult it is
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for you if you can see those stairs as
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an opportunity and not as an obstacle
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and I think that's anything in life when
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it comes to to fitness or to becoming
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better at something i was listening
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today to um something by Peter Vidmar
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and if any of you know Peter Vidmar he
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actually won the Olympics and he was
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saying that to become really good at
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something takes 10,000 hours and I
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thought you know these Olympians are you
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know they're the people that are doing
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you these great things in the Olympics
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or sports are spending hours and hours
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and hours training obviously 10,000
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hours is a long time you know it would
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take you years and years and years of
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mastery to be able to do that for
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example if you did like a brief
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calculation and you said you know you're
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going to exercise four hours a day for
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300 days out of the year which most of
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us aren't doing you know it would take
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you 8 years to get up to 10,000 hours
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and he said that he calculated he did
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about 20,000 hours to get where he
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needed to be for the Olympics you know I
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just point that out to say that you know
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if we can see some of these things
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whatever fitness or other challenges we
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have if we can see it as an opportunity
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not as an obstacle that will be half the
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battle right there because then we will
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get ourselves you know up and moving and
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doing things that we know that we need
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to do so we can get out there and start
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you know you know burning the calories
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or just becoming fit or finding
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something that we can do and certainly
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we can all try to do stair climbing
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because it is an an important skill for
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us to learn it can help us with balance
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it can you know help you like you said
8:33
with your glutes it can help strengthen
8:35
your muscles and you know overall if
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you're getting older it can help keep
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you mobile longer than you would have
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been if you stopped doing stairs because
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once when you get older if you stop
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stairs you'll probably never take stairs
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again so this I think is really
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essential and important to keep moving
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and keep doing those things that you
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need to do even if it's hard even if
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it's difficult even if you're slow keep
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doing it because and keep moving because
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that's what's important and essential
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i've written a a blog post on this why
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stair walking is one of the best
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workouts for busy people i will put a
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description below into that blog post in
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case you're interested in reading it i
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actually have some other blogs too that
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we'll put we'll put the description in
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too about stair walking and they are
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also called 10 surprising health
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benefits of stair walking that go beyond
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weight loss and stair walking with
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weight loss a simple exercise that burns
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serious calories so those are all
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reasons why you know stair walking is a
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great exercise there's many great things
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that you can do that can help you in
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many great ways if you could just start
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doing more stairs or just start becoming
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more fit just get up and start moving
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this is Anita from Reluctant Low Carb
9:54
Life where we like to talk about the
9:55
three things for health which is you
9:57
know eating foods that help you stay
9:58
full longer foods which are fresh give
10:01
you more satiety and also fitness
10:04
finding a way to incorporate fitness in
10:06
your daily life we hope that you'll join
10:08
with us if you haven't yet press that
10:09
subscribe button join become part of our
10:12
community we'd love to have you join
10:15
with us in this quest to just live a
10:17
healthier life thank you