Exercise space is at a premium in Bangkok – with scant parks and even scanter (is that a word?) running/walking surfaces that aren’t filled with vendors, dogs or motorcycles, getting out into the great outdoors to burn some calories isn’t as easy as it should be. But thankfully, the enterprising folks at the brand new (and pretty beautiful, might I say) Park Ventures Ecoplex took some initiative and designed some handy exercise helpers directly into their building! While it would be pretty cool to have, say, a pulley system to lift to you to the roof, or a fireman’s pole to bring you back to ground level, they went with something low-tech, but still serviceable. Too bad it’s, uh… well, take a look.

I guess there’s nothing actually wrong with this, but I just found it kind of funny. Okay, sure, I can burn 0.6 kilocalories with each step I take, that’s kind of handy I guess. There are only 4 steps in this series outside of the building so you’ve only burned 2.4 kilocalories by the top, although this may provide some inspiration for you to tackle the bigger stairs inside.

What really amused me though was the words they wrote: “Use calories, lose no electricity”. You could probably argue that it’s sort of, maybe, gramatically correct, but it does sound a bit sloppy, and having it literally carved in stone is a pretty badass move on the part of the designer. I would have done a test in styrofoam first.

If it were up to me, I would have gone with "Hey tubby, why don't you try the stairs for a change?"

If it were up to me, I would have gone with “Hey tubby, why don’t you try the stairs for a change?”