How many flights of stairs...?

Options
lilawolf
lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
until you are winded? Until you can't go anymore?

I am 5'9, 161 lbs. ~10 lbs, a lot of muscle and conditioning, to go

Winded: 9 flights
Needed 2 minute break: 14 flights
Live on: 19th floor

Am I just really out of shape, or is that many flights of stairs just that difficult?

Replies

  • leesehm
    leesehm Posts: 117
    Options
    stairs are definitely difficult. but they are AWESOME at getting you fit so well done for doing it.

    i run up and down stairs for 5mins with a 10kg weightbag on my shoulders and do 5 squats at bottom and 5 squats at top. as half of it is going down and half is going up, i'm not sure if it equivalent, but that gets me beat!
  • Zylahe
    Zylahe Posts: 772 Member
    Options
    Hmm me thinks i should do more stairs.
    I get pretty puffed after 4 flights.


    :sad:
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Options
    Hmm me thinks i should do more stairs.
    I get pretty puffed after 4 flights.


    :sad:

    This! I work on the fifth floor but I never walk up the stairs cos it kills me!!!
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
    Options
    I have decided to climb up them every day after work. I'll have a 10lb weight in my backpack. I think that this will help a lot with my endurance even if I don't go to the gym every day...

    Thanks for everyone's input! Makes me feel less bad about the puddle of sweat that I was once I got to the top. Doesn't help that the stairs are almost 90 degrees lol.
  • ingies2011
    ingies2011 Posts: 127 Member
    Options
    I used to go up stairs to my work, was only 6 flights though, but it made a difference. Could always do those without stopping, sometimes even taking 2 steps at a time for the first three flights. Now hardly ever go up them as I no longer need to, but where ever I find I need to go up the next floor(s) I will take the stairs. I have never been in a building tall enough to go up 19 flights of stairs, so not sure how far I can go before needing to stop.
  • Di3012
    Di3012 Posts: 2,250 Member
    Options
    A few months ago hubby and I went on holiday and the hotel we stayed in was 9 floors high. We deliberately asked for a room on the top floor because I intended to climb the stairs at all times (he used the lift on occasions) as part of my exercise whilst on holiday.

    The number of stairs for the nine floors climbed amounted to 160, I would often climb those stairs four times per day because we would sunbathe on the roof in the mornings and I had to go down to the ground floor for drinks each time.

    Stair-climbing is very good exercise, not recommended on drunken nights out when returning back to the hotel though, on those times I used the lift lol.
  • Arexxx
    Arexxx Posts: 486 Member
    Options
    I have no idea, but I do know a few months ago I couldn't walk up the stairs at the train station without getting winded, now I run up and down them for fun
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Options
    Stairs are tough. Even fit people can struggle with stairs if they don't do them regularly.
  • Mighty_Rabite
    Mighty_Rabite Posts: 581 Member
    Options
    I pretty much regularly run the stairs at my gym. It's 22 steps to the top, usually I'll run 20 or 30 flights up (and of course back down) alternating going up one step at a time, two steps at a time, and three steps (three steps is more like doing lunges up though).
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
    Options
    I pretty much regularly run the stairs at my gym. It's 22 steps to the top, usually I'll run 20 or 30 flights up (and of course back down) alternating going up one step at a time, two steps at a time, and three steps (three steps is more like doing lunges up though).

    Wow, that is quite the workout! I think I will settle for being able to walk briskly up the 19 flights with my laptop in my backpack without stopping or dying before I reach the top....

    My calves are really sore from doing the stairs the last two days, but I will do them again tonight after work
  • Mighty_Rabite
    Mighty_Rabite Posts: 581 Member
    Options
    It definitely burns when you start doing the three steppers, then drop back to the twos and ones! Usually I go like:

    1-1-2-2-3-3-2-2-1-1

    and repeat if I'm doing 20 flights, and again for 30 flights lol
  • Celeigh12
    Celeigh12 Posts: 763 Member
    Options
    My friend just did a charity stair run in downtown LA - 75 flights of stairs in 23 minutes and he was toward the bottom of his age bracket (30s). I would have been dead by the 10th floor!

    http://ymcastairclimb.kintera.org/faf/help/helpEventInfo.asp?ievent=1027666&lis=1&kntae1027666=8C7D5D7642C44632B9E8DBBC11BFE93E
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
    Options
    Last night I managed to make it up all 19 flights of stairs with a backpack on my back without stopping :glasses: !!! My coworker decided to join me, and he wasn't even out of breath :grumble: so I couldn't stop lol
  • omnisis
    omnisis Posts: 85 Member
    Options
    Depends a lot on intensity...

    I do AM cardio workouts on my stairs at home and I pretty much sprint up 2-4 flights then walk down, rinse and repeat for 20 mins...I keep the intensity at a level that lets me do 20 mins or more...I will say that adding weight or increasing tempo with a stairs workout is just an insane way to do cardio and I feel like a lot of people sleep on this very simple but highly efficient way to stay fit!

    When I see healthly people waiting 5 min for an elevator to go up 3-4 floors in my building I secretly worry about the future of the human race..
  • Mighty_Rabite
    Mighty_Rabite Posts: 581 Member
    Options
    My friend just did a charity stair run in downtown LA - 75 flights of stairs in 23 minutes and he was toward the bottom of his age bracket (30s). I would have been dead by the 10th floor!

    http://ymcastairclimb.kintera.org/faf/help/helpEventInfo.asp?ievent=1027666&lis=1&kntae1027666=8C7D5D7642C44632B9E8DBBC11BFE93E

    Damn, 75 flights sounds like quite the 23 minute workload!
    I do AM cardio workouts on my stairs at home and I pretty much sprint up 2-4 flights then walk down, rinse and repeat for 20 mins...I keep the intensity at a level that lets me do 20 mins or more...I will say that adding weight or increasing tempo with a stairs workout is just an insane way to do cardio and I feel like a lot of people sleep on this very simple but highly efficient way to stay fit!

    Totally agreed, I would kill to have some stairs where I live right now for this very reason. I could only imagine the burn if I were to load up my weighted vest and run some stairs X_X
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
    Options
    If I am 160lbs with a 10lb backpack, is that the same calorie burn as if I weighed 170lbs? Or more?

Categories