Van Roie called it “a very short burst of exercise.” On average, the fastest participant took 3.1 seconds to climb the two flights of stairs and the slowest took 6.8 seconds.

According to research, climbing stairs can have surprising benefits for both your physical health and your brain without needing to hurtle up two steps at a time or break records.

Evelien Van Roie, an assistant professor at Hasselt University, conducted a study in which they randomly assigned 46 adults between the ages of 65 and 80 to either do a leg-press machine workout ...

The stair-climbing group started with four sets of step-ups on a box about 30 or 40 centimeters (about 1 or 1.3 feet) high, alternating two sets per leg, to induce muscle fatigue and build strength.