Boycott the elevator. Walking up stairs for an average of six minutes a day will lower your cholesterol by 10 to 15 percent - and make you 10 to 15 percent fitter, according to a new study at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown.

Professor Colin Boreham and his team have found that bursts of short, intermittent exercise - like climbing a few flights of stairs - can lower cholesterol.

They conducted a seven-week study into the effect of stair climbing on the fitness levels of 22 sedentary women.

We measured the women’s height, body mass, heart rate, blood lipids and oxygen uptake before, during and after the programme, said Professor Boreham.

The major findings were the important indicators of cardiovascular fitness and health, were enhanced by the stair climbing exercises. The programme also resulted in beneficial effects on the women’s cholesterol levels.

What is intriguing is that these improvements came as a result of really very little exercise, said professor Boreham.

The women only did a maximum of 13 minutes of stair climbing per day over the seven week research programme - and even those 13 minutes were not done all at once.

Stair climbing is a particularly efficient way of incorporating health-promoting exercise into an individual’s lifestyle.

You don’t need to go to a gym, or have to change clothes, or any of the time-consuming things associated with traditional gym-based exercise routines, he said.

It is a message that will be warmly welcomed by figure conscious people everywhere.