The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 72

THE OTTAWA CITIZEN SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1989 D19. Living Fitness buffs go far on mechanical stairs leading nowhere By Aron Kahn Knight-Ridder how many calories they've burned, how many floors they've climbed, the equivalent in miles travelled and something called the MET rate (a measure of oxy gen intake that's used in medical evaluation). Finally, the whole board lights up and flashes and tells them with the near-reinforce ment of a slot-machine payload, "GOAL ATTAINED. The stair machine is not the first comDuterized workout de vice. It was beaten to the market by computerized bikes that go nowhere and computerized rowing apparatuses that go nowhere.

But there is a real fascination with stairs afoot, and how to make them even better. The guru of stair climbing is Steve Suva of Boston, a 41-year- old fitness maven who lost 227 pounds in less than two years through diet and stair climbing. Those are real stairs, too, not ALL EASTER some stationary machine. Silva, fitness director at Health Management Resources in Boston, which specializes in obesity treatment and risk-factor manage IS Off ment, has climbed a bit more than 10 million steps in eight years, including all of those in the Eiffel Tower. It is a feat he is submitting to the Guinness Book of World Records.

It is uncertain when stairs first appeared, although experts believe they predated Gatorade and lycra shorts. The ancient Egyptians, Romans, Mayans and Greeks all thought they had a good idea when they built stairs. The Romans built them after discovering the difficulty of getting to the top of the Colosseum with two hot dogs and a soft drink. Greek lectures were chaotic until one of the great philosophers unveiled the principle of reserved seating, for which Plato's students could take stairs to the balcony for a discount. But it took a forward-thinking, 20th-century mind to develop the concept of stairs that go nowhere.

You can't get to a balcony on these stairs. Scarlett O'Hara couldn't have fallen down these stairs. All anyone can do on these stairs is climb in place. And more and more people are doing it. Visit the St.

Paul Skyway YMCA and you'll find a line of people waiting to get on one of five StairMaster 4000s, an advanced model of stairs that go nowhere. The machine they mount has two fluid stairs that go up and down with steady resistance, controlled by a computer that users program for their level of conditioning. No sissy rubber-band workout, this baby has programs that fairly scream a sense of no-painno-gain: Pikes Peak, Lunar Landing, Blast Off and Black Hole. Most of the programs provide interval training; in Blast Off, climbers faces a more difficult level of exertion at each 30-second interval for most of the program's 15-minute time span. Last week, after a gruelling routine on the machine, six-foot-four, 245-pound Steve Wellington stood near his mount dripping enough sweat to fill the Y's roof pool.

Wellington, a 39-year old St. Paul developer, once was a runner, but the jarring bothered the pinched nerve in his neck. He experimented with a stationary bike, but he didn't like it. He experimented with aerobics, but they hurt his neck. "Then I bumped into this thing," he says.

"It seemed like a pretty good workout with low impact." At first, Wellington selected the programed routines that required him to climb at paces that the Stationery Dept. Counter cards not included. Silva says stair-climbing is one of the most rapid calorie-burning activities, and it doesn't jar your body like running. "In order to burn the same number of calories as 15 steps, I have to go 15 times as far straight ahead," he says. "And I ve not missed a day of stair-climbing because of an injury." Silva uses stair machines some times and thinks they're just fine.

He cautions against cheating, however. On some machines, for example, you can avoid working hard by not taking a full stride or by supporting yourself on the hand rails. Several companies make good machines, he says, including StairMaster, Stairobic and Precor. More companies are get SIZES 4-6X 7-14 dresses tops pants sweaters outerwear ting into the business all the time. Over at the Skyway the five StairMaster 4000s are going 14 hours a day.

"As far as exercise TRACK SUITS FOR equipment goes, it's the hottest addition we have," says Darrell Silverness, associate branch MEM LABI The 4000 is StairMaster's most 1 11 I 11 n. Ik' 'it i Brooks nylon suits, reg. $70 52.49 Adidas 'Volcano' warm-up suits, reg. $150 112.49 Adidas 'William' warm-up suits, reg. $90 67.49 Not all styles colours in all stores.

Available at Rideau Centre only 3A 3Eeo popular muuei ana sens ior plus shipping, says Randy Peterson, head of marketing for the Tulsa-based company. The machines are back-ordered and take eight to 10 weeks for delivery. Peterson believes the machines are an improvement on actual stairs because first, they let you go at a manageable pace if you're not in good shape, and second, the steady resistance is easier on your legs than taking one step after another on a real climb. The StairMaster company also makes a 6000, a more expensive and unwieldy number that you probably won't like as well unless your name is Hulk. It seems to be for killer workouts, only.

Not that you can't go at a fever pitch on the 4000. Some workout champs have figured out ways to program the machine to go longer than 15 minutes at a time, which is frustrating to other eager calorie-burners waiting on line at the Y. Ifi70 JK70 OFF OFF 6AJ Dy OFF macnine cnose. Finally, he settled on the manual mode, which allowed him to push the machine to its limits for as long as he could take it. "Now you can self-inflict pain," he says, "which really appeals to the masochist in all of us." Masochism aside, the Y's Cheryl Dornfeld says the StairMaster 4000 provides an excellent workout, both for cardiovascular fitness and for those all-important quads and glutes (workout talk for the quadracept muscle of the thigh and the gluteus maximus muscle of the bumpazina).

But one of the qualities that keeps people coming back is the machine's good manners. It is entertaining, reinforcing and congratulatory. After each workout, the computer screen tells them FASHION JEWELLERY "BRIGHTS" Necklaces, earrings, pins and bracelets. Selection may vary by store. LADIES' SELECTED DRESSES Styles for all-occasion wear.

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