In today’s The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer I follow up on a study from Oregon State University that found an active daily lifestyle trumps long periods behind a desk interrupted by three 30-minute visits to the gym every week. The story discusses the study of more than 6,300 adults and offers suggestions for pumping a little activity into your life. You can read the story in this space tomorrow, with links.

Today in this space, you can learn about five specific things you can do to jump-start your daily life, as well as how these activities improve your health, in our Do This Not That series. Read the synopses below, click for more information.

Do This, Not That: Take the Stairs. A classic, but one that can have a significant and immediate impact on your life. Think about how often your default is to beeline it to the elevator or escalator. Then think about the legs you’d develop by running up two, three, four flights of stairs instead. Learn more here.

Do This, Not That: Bypass the Carpool Lane. You fume about the long drop-off at PS 666 in the morning and the even longer pickup in the afternoon. You stress sitting in line, car idling, gas burning, as you burn off nervous energy wrapping your fingers against the steering wheel. Why not burn off a lot more energy and avoid the stressful wait altogether by parking a couple blocks away and walking to pick up your youngster? Learn more here.

Do This, Not That: Watch TV on a Ball, Not a Chair. Shed your couch potato midsection while still enjoying that three-hour “The Big Bang Theory” marathon by watching on an exercise ball. You’ll reap an astounding number of benefits by balancing on the ball, from a ripped core to better posture. Learn more here.

Do This, Not That: Time Your Workouts. I can’t bear the thought of getting up an extra half hour to walk — so I don’t do it at all. Did it occur to you you might not be a morning person? Did it further occur to you that your body and mind may be better suited to walking at lunch, or after work? Timing can be everything when it comes to being more active. Learn more here.

Do This, Not That: Favor One Side. Whether you’re aware of it or not, you likely favor one side of your body — your right arm, your left leg — over the other. Trouble is, our bodies work best in synch. Some tips on how you can achieve physical balance through the things you do every day, from opening a door to playing air guitar. Learn more here.

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I’m always on the lookout for a quick, effective workout. To share with you, my faithful readers, of course. But mainly for me. This morning, I may have struck gold.

Once or twice a week for the last decade, I’ve done an early morning mountain bike ride at Umstead State Park with my buddy Alan Nechemias. We ride the bridal trail network, sometimes throwing in some adjacent singletrack. We ride for an hour and a half to two hours, usually put in 20 to 25 miles. It’s a great workout.

On this morning’s ride we were joined by Jeff Monsein. Jeff and Alan are longtime road riding buddies. For years, they trained together, did a lot of the same mountain centuries. A few years ago Jeff rode the famed Haleakala volcano on Maui — only instead of going the popular route and taking a shuttle up the 23-mile road, which climbs 6,500 vertical feet, and coasting down, he earned his spirited descent by pedaling up first. Two years ago, Jeff was hit by a car on a training ride in northern Durham County. His passion for cycling didn’t fade, it simply shifted off-road. For the past year, Jeff has been a welcome, occasional addition to our Umstead ride.

An hour into this morning’s ride I noticed Jeff was riding strong.

“Been riding a lot?” I asked.

“Not as much as I’d like,” came the familiar refrain. Not even once a week, it turned out.

Dang, I thought. I’m riding three times a week training for the Off Road Assault on Mount Mitchell in less than a month, and Jeff is hanging right in there. Youth, I concluded: Jeff, at 54, is two years my junior.

At the end of the ride, though, I discovered his secret. He pulled a pair of 12-pound weights from the back of his SUV. “A couple times a week I go to Wallace Wade and do the stairs,” he said. “I take these and get an arm workout as well.”

Stairs!

Years ago, back in college, I would prepare for the upcoming ski season by running the stairs of a 12-story dorm on campus. It was miserable: the stairwell was stuffy, my sweaty, long-haired, heavy-breathing presence scared the life out of more than one surprised coed, and the most “laps” I ever managed was three. But it was the most physically effective use of a half hour imaginable. I’d been fretting of late about my lack of mountain training for ORAMM, which climbs 11,000 vertical feet over 63 miles; adding a set or two of stairs to the mix certainly couldn’t hurt.

Unfortunately, I do not live in Durham, and Wallace Wade’s accessibility is rare among its collegiate colleagues. (Kudos to Duke for recognizing the stadium’s recreational potential and allowing access to the masses.) Heck, you can’t even get inside a high school stadium in the Triangle — that I know of — without scaling 10 feet of chain link topped by razor wire. Which leads to my dilemma — and plea.

Certainly there must be a venue or two in the region suitable for running steps. (Office buildings are an option, though in my limited experience management frowns on sweaty runners funkifying their stairwells.) So I ask: Where can you run steps in the Triangle? I live in Cary, but don’t let that limit your suggestions; certainly there are others out there in search of steps who could benefit from your thoughts.

Leave your suggestions in the comment box. My quads thank you.

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