Step it Up sets mountainous goal

Friday, May 15, 2015

America’s Healthiest Campus has created a health and wellness goal to climb Mount Everest— 50,000 stairs— in the month of June. This challenge encourages collaboration among the Oklahoma State University system, including five campuses, four A&M's and 77 county extension offices. 

Participants should set a realistic personal physical activity goal based off their current activity level, decide how many floors to climb either daily or weekly, and then record the number actually climbed each day. Then they can enter their stair count online at the stair climbing database. 

Below is a helpful way to figure out stair-climbing targets:

What’s the highest number of steps you climbed on any one day in your average week?

 _______________________ This is your Daily steps target.

Divide your Daily steps target by 15 (the average number of steps in a flight of stairs).

________________________ This is your Daily flight goal.

Multiply your Daily flight goal by 7 (days in a week).

 ________________________ This is your Weekly flight goal. 

Jared Cole, employee communication specialist at Langston University, wanted to introduce a change of pace with this challenge by encouraging collaboration over competition and believes it’s an easy way to make healthier lifestyle choices.

“Taking the stairs can make a big difference to your health without breaking the bank or devouring your already busy schedule,” said Cole. “The ‘Step it Up’ challenge is meant to help employees make small changes to their normal work life that will make big changes to their health and schedule, and encourage comradeship by bringing everybody together to reach a single goal.”

Together we can help America’s Healthiest Campus reach the peak. To sign up and Step it Up, visit http://stepitup.okstate.edu

Story by Katie Rosebrook