Step It Up.

Heywood Industries

Sadly, I was unable to watch to The Biggest Loser on Friday night, due to my being busy at Max Brenner consuming a double chocolate brownie covered in milk chocolate sauce and all... So I was a wee bit concerned when I got a text from a friend that read: “Are you watching BL? We’ve definitely got to try this!”

Last time I trained with a friend who got her workout ideas from The Biggest Loser, I couldn’t move my arms for weeks. But this time it was the 6,000-stair challenge that had my gym buddy all inspired and as I fancy myself a bit of a master at the ole stair climb, I was up for it.

A trainer at my gym told me he takes his clients down to the Opera House to run the stairs there. Five sets of the "shorter" stairs (I counted 45, so they're really not that short) and then eight sets of the longer stairs (75 in total to get to the top). Combined with a 20-minute run just to get to the stairs, it makes for a pretty solid workout. Total time: 45 minutes. Total calories burned: 497.