To climb a mountain is to feel the thrill of accomplishment: the wind blowing through your hair while you stand atop the peak, taking, in the glorious view that stretches for miles in all directions, feeling your heart racing with the excitement of the adventure.
Dal doesn’t exactly have any non-metaphorical mountains to climb, but it does have one of the tallest buildings in Halifax’s south end.
Hence, the idea behind the Tupper Trek.
On Friday, Feb. 24, Dal employees are invited to take on the challenge of making it up all 16 floors and 345 steps (from the first floor) of Dal’s Tupper Medical Building, located on College Street on Carleton campus. The event is a part of “Move More” month.
“I wanted to start some kind of event in the winter to get people moving more,” says Janice MacInnis, coordinator of organizational health at Dalhousie. “It’s so easy to use the weather as an excuse to not exercise, so I tried to think of an indoor physical fitness activity that would bring people together in one spot.”
Blasting the winter blahs
Ms. MacInnis already knew of some Tupper-based employees who were taking the stairs for regular exercise, and since the Tupper is the tallest building on campus, the Tupper Trek was a natural solution for a campus-wide activity.
The Tupper Trek has different accomplishment levels, similar to a marathon. Participants will start on the first floor, and can choose to climb five or 10 floors, or really challenge themselves and go for the entire 15-floor climb.
“You don’t have to go all the way to the top,” Ms. MacInnis advises. “It’s about moving more, but it’s not about hurting yourself. See how far you can go comfortably, and if you feel up to it, maybe challenge yourself to do a bit more.”
Each Tupper Trek participant will check back in on the first floor after they complete their climb to report which floor they reached. Ms. MacInnis hopes the Trek will become an annual event that the Dal community looks forward to each February.
Dal departments moving more
Steve Morley from the Faculty of Medicine is one of the original stair-climbers in the Tupper building. A co-worker asked him to recommend some indoor exercise options to improve his health. A distance coach for track and field, he explored different options and got his co-worker started on a daily stair-climbing expedition in their own building.
“When we started, we made it to about the fourth floor,” says Mr. Morley. “But after a month, eight floors became our standard distance. And then, he came in after lunch one day and told me he made it to the top floor!”
Ms. MacInnis notes that many departments across campus are already great champions of the Move More concept, and often organize their own activities to encourage fellow employees to move more on a regular basis. For anyone who wants to move a little more, but may not know where to start, the Tupper Trek is a great beginning point.
“You don’t need to become an athlete. You just need to move more, which means you need to sit less,” says Ms. MacInnis.
When it comes to increasing your activity level, Mr. Morley says, “The body adapts pretty quickly. After three weeks you won’t hate it, and after six weeks, you get used to it. Once you make it into a habit, it’s something you just do.”
Join the Tupper trek
Want to move more this month, and maybe win a door prize? Join the Tupper Trek on Friday, Feb. 24 from noon to 1 p.m. and you could win a Dalplex day pass or a complimentary spinal analysis from a certified chiropractor. Take some time on your lunch hour, grab a co-worker, and move more.