Stairs

[Melalvai]

I take the stairs all the time, habitually now. Even to the animal facility on the 7th floor, and I might go there several times a day. That's a lot of stairs, and sometimes I'll stop halfway up 4, and just stand there, stretch my calves, catch my breath. 4th floor is the pharmacology dept. One day I was standing there taking a break when the Pharm dept head came through.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"I'm just taking a break on my way to the rats," I explained.
"There's this thing called an elevator just over there," he said, amused.
"I know, I just like the stairs."

I do like the stairs even if I have to take a breather at 4 1/2. Whatever I was thinking about before I got to the stairs, as soon as I reach the stairs I stop thinking about that and I start appreciating that my knees work so well. That my heart is pumping so strongly and my lungs are at it.

I take the stairs because I CAN.

[Crankin]

I always take the stairs.
For most of the fall, I was seeing one of my clients at her preschool. Her classroom was on the 2nd floor and it amazed me how many parents and teachers took the elevator just to go one floor. My employer also has an office in this building on the third floor, and once, when I had to go there for a class, I was like the only one who took the stairs.
It's depressing.

[shootingstar]

I actually don't use stairwell staircases, in office buildings where I work.

I had the freaky experience in a 3 level historic courthouse where I used to work, where I did take the stairs ....but got locked out for at least half an hr. in a stairwell. Thankfully another employee was using the stairs....

I don't want to get into the complicated description but suffice to say at that time I was part of staff who worked for judges and hence, there were all sorts of building security features in place --some good, some not so good.

So from that experience, I just tend not to use the stairwell case in our building. There are some cross over floors which lock out some of exit/entrances.

[Trek420]

I like stairs.

One can't take the stairs from the lobby in our building to the 3rd floor where I work. I could take the elevator to the 2nd and then one flight but that seems silly in the morning.

Once I'm in the building it's stairs. It's faster than waiting for any of the 6 elevators to arrive :p I'm up or down while coworkers are still in the lobby punching the call button.

I got stuck in the aging elevator in one of our buildings for an hour. By the time repair arrived and she got me out I found out more than I wanted to know about how well they are maintained.

I like stairs :D

Most of my coworkers are sedentary. One who's a good friend has expressed an interest in fitness. I'm very glad because I've been saddened how sedentary she'd become. We've started walking at lunch. Right now she's up to almost a block and back with a stop midway. It's scary to see that a block exhausts her.

But she's made the commitment and we're starting where she is. I've told her what I know about training, building a program. Most of that I learned here on TE.

[Owlie]

I take the stairs unless it's immediately after lunch or I'm super-sore after a ride. While you can't get to the animal facility (in the basement) any way other than the elevator for some reason, the lab I'm in is on the second floor and right across from the stairwell, so it's far faster to take the stairs.

I lived in a building my second year of college that had six floors and I lived on the fifth. The elevator was broken most of the second semester (thankfully they fixed it before we moved out!), and that set of buildings had a very long flight of ridiculous steps up to it. (We called those the Elephant Stairs because the treads were very deep and you couldn't actually get a rhythm going on them). Yeah, I was in pretty good cardiovascular shape that year!

[malkin]

I normally use the stairs, but I ride up and down the elevator quite often, because kids work for it as a reinforcer. :)

[missjean]

I try to take the stairs when ever I can.
At my last job I had to carry sample books to the clients. Talk about a good work out - lugging heavy sample books up & down the stairs! I did get some funny looks sometimes.

My daughters & I went into Boston one day and one of the subway stops in Boston has an *enormously* long set of stairs. They took the escalator, but I was going to show them I could get up to the top as fast as them. :rolleyes: I did not take into account I did one of the longest rides I have ever done the day before.
Up I go and do quite well for the first half, then my legs say to me - excuse us, but you should have consulted with us legs before you decided to show off! My poor leg muscles were quivering by the time I got to the top.

[marni]

actually climbing stairs, or rather my lack of ability to climb four flights of stairs of a parking garage were the the final slap upside the head that made me realize that I either had to lose weight and get my life in control of just give up and veg in a recliner eating chocolate covered cherries until I died.

6 years and 130 pounds later, not to mention endless hours at the gym and over 3,000 miles a year on the bike I am thankful for that lesson.

marni

[jessmarimba]

I take the stairs because elevators make me motion sick.

I do use escalators and people movers when available or necessary (at airports, primarily) but it drives me UP the WALL when people get on them and just stop. I guess if you have a rolling suitcase, walking up the escalator doesn't work very well :) but I just hate not moving on my own power. I'll walk rather than take trains or buses between terminals when I have the option - sitting on the trains/monorails (at DFW, especially) just makes me edgy.

[Crankin]

Ha, MissJean, I took the train to Porter Square 2 days week for the last 3 years. I could always judge my health by how well I climbed those stairs. I admit, I didn't always use the stairs there, but if I was on the escalator, I would run up.
I always wondered just how steep of a grade that is. If you look up from the bottom, it's frighteningly steep!

[goldfinch]

I would take the stairs if I had some stairs. :)

I was on the 8th floor of our building. Our office entrance was on the 7th. I would slowly lumber up the one flight of internal office stairs to my office.

One of my secretaries was afraid of elevators. She always took the stairs. She would go up to the office in the morning and almost always leave for lunch, so that was twice a day she used the stairs to go 8 floors. Plus she was up and down the interior staircase numerous times a day. Her phobia had some value. However, she ended up taking another job where she only had to go up three flights.

[Eden]

I always take the stairs at the hospital, but when I work in the research building I do believe the stairwell doors are one way -you can get into the stairwell, but the only one that isn't locked to go out is floor 1, so you can only walk down.

[Melalvai]

My daughters & I went into Boston one day and one of the subway stops in Boston has an *enormously* long set of stairs. They took the escalator, but I was going to show them I could get up to the top as fast as them. :rolleyes: I did not take into account I did one of the longest rides I have ever done the day before.
Up I go and do quite well for the first half, then my legs say to me - excuse us, but you should have consulted with us legs before you decided to show off! My poor leg muscles were quivering by the time I got to the top.
But did you win?

[Melalvai]

I don't have a phobia about elevators but I do feel satisfaction knowing that I'm not risking getting stuck in an elevator. I've never heard of anyone getting stuck in a stairwell! I've gone up a few flights of stairs and had to go back down because the doors were locked on the level I needed off, but I thought it was a building code that there had to be an exit somewhere.

The elevator to the animal facility is so slow that, not even counting the time spent waiting for the elevator, if someone gets on the elevator the same time as I do, and I don't take too long of a break at 4 1/2, I still get to the 7th floor before the elevator arrives. And I'm not exactly running or even breaking a sweat. I was really shocked the first time that happened. I hadn't thought an elevator could be that slow.

[missjean]

But did you win?

No, they did :( , but, not by very much! :) & only because of the previous day's ride :p

[PamNY]

I use the stairs in my building for exercise, especially in winter. With music or satellite radio, it's not too boring. Plus I get to see the garbage rooms on every floor; fascinating to see what people throw away.

[Owlie]

The stairs are the least busy part of the mall.

[jyyanks]

Do you believe we don't have stairs in our building! We do but we can only use them if there is a fire alarm, otherwise they are locked and if you attempt to open the stairwell, the fire alarm will go off (common in NYC office buildings).

It feels so silly when I'm on the 19th floor and want to go down to 18, and have to get on a crowded elevator to go down one floor. Everyone who works in the building knows but every now and then we get an occasional guest who looks at me funny when I go down 1 floor but it's not my fault!

[five one]

I've been doing intervals on the Communications Hill stairs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhMTsXsHUco) in San Jose after work for a few weeks. (I have no idea who the guys in the video are. Google found them.)

I'm up to four intervals - trotting down from the top and walking up. It creates a very different feeling fatigue than cycling hill repeats. My quads are definitely feeling it, as are my lungs.

[tzvia]

The stairs are actually broken in our building at work. It's only a two story building, but you would be surprised at how many people huff and puff... I'll be bounding up the stairs while talking to someone, and realize that they can't walk up a flight and talk at the same time, and I have to slow down to stay with them. Otis is putting in a new elevator, what a waste for a two story building. No wonder the U.S. is obese. I go up and down the stairs several times during lunch and whenever I am near them even if I don't need to go downstairs.

Not enough stairs. So I bought a Nordic Track elliptical two weeks ago and it was delivered and setup last Friday in my new 'exercise room' (really an enclosed deck). Also room for my bike on the trainer, my Wii, and I hooked up a DVD player for exercise videos. I thought I was in half-way good shape, but that Nordic Track is kicking my butt.

[smittykitty]

I'm climbing the Columbia Tower in Seattle in late March, a lymphoma fundraiser. It's 69 floors, tallest building in the city!!!! I've been practicing at our local hospitals, doing lots of climbing repeats. Hoping it will make me a stronger hill climber on the bike this year.

[skhill]

I usually take the stairs up, but elevator down, if it's more than 4 stories or so. Stairs down do not always agree with my knees... Our downtown library did something really stupid when they built the place: there were no public stairs originally, even though it's only 5 stories tall. They bowed to public pressure, and changed an emergency staircase to public. It's just cool that there was sufficient demand that they responded!

This next Saturday is a new race in town-- up the stairs of our tallest building. 29 stories, racing against the clock. If the entry fee wasn't so steep, I'd almost cetainly do it. Still might, anyway...