Taking a step toward fitness at work

Boyd Rutherford gets a lot of reading done as he climbs the stairs.

Most days after returning from lunch, he hikes up 15 flights to his office in the State Office Building on Preston Street with a memorandum or article to absorb during the 10-minute trip.

His staff teases him about his insistence on taking the stairs, but the 46-year-old Department of General Services secretary says, "It's my modest attempt to be somewhat active."

Rutherford is serious about the State Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's initiative called Smart Step Forward, which challenges employees to take the stairs and not the elevator.

"A lot of people don't even know where the stairs are," says Gary Wunderlich, chief of the health department's division of cardiovascular health and the driving force behind the initiative, which began in 2002.

Using motivational signs and refurbished stairwells, the state program promotes the health benefits of taking the stairs. Stair climbing on a regular basis has been shown to improve cardiovascular fitness, reduce cholesterol and decrease body fat. It's also inexpensive and convenient, requiring no specialized equipment.

The trick is to get people off the elevator by changing their behavior, Wunderlich says. Smart Step Forward, inspired by a similar program created by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prompts behavior change with posters near elevators that say, "Physical activity will add years to your life and life to your years," and "A flight a day may keep chronic disease away."

"We haven't promoted the program aggressively," Wunderlich says, "but it has been building gradually." Smart Step Forward kits have been sent to more than 30 businesses and schools throughout the state, including Mercy Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Healthcare and the Carroll County school district. Anne Arundel County is actively promoting the initiative as part of its employee wellness program.

Along with posters, Wunderlich says making sure that stairwells are accessible, well lighted and safe is important. At the state office complex on Preston Street, for example, stairs were spruced up, and employees got together to paint original murals on landings.

The notion of encouraging employees to use the stairs has been gaining a foothold in offices nationwide. The director of the CDC has ordered some elevators at the Atlanta headquarters be turned off, and has had the stairwells carpeted and children's artwork hung on the walls.

At the new Sprint telecommunications corporate headquarters in Kansas, slow-moving hydraulic elevators were installed to dissuade people from using them, and spacious staircases with picture windows encourage more walking.

Choosing the stairs over elevators and escalators is among the activities suggested by the U.S. Surgeon General to achieve a recommended 30 minutes per day of moderate exercise.