People who like to climb stairs for exercise often say the workout is simple to fit into daily life, even when full gym sessions aren’t possible. But as federal guidance has pushed short bursts of activity, many exercisers say stair access can be blocked by building rules, and some security teams have treated them as a safety risk.
Tom McGee began climbing stairs for exercise about 20 years ago as part of an effort to stay off cigarettes. A 69-year-old market researcher who lives near Chicago, he said in an interview that his stair climbing has sometimes drawn trouble from security guards at hotels, with “I’ve gotten kicked out of about every hotel in the city,” he said.
McGee’s experience points to a broader challenge faced by people who try to use stairwells more regularly: office tower managers and building owners sometimes cut off access. Stair climbing has become more embedded in exercise advice, but exercisers say they can struggle to find safe, permitted places to do it when rules limit stair use to emergencies.
Dr. Luis Rodriguez, a pediatric pulmonologist who is “semi-retired,” participates in stair-climbing events and has credited the activity with health benefits. Rodriguez said, “You are working your legs. You are working your heart. You are working your lungs,” and he added, “You can get a lot more benefit than just walking, because gravity is working against you.”
Rodriguez’s comments align with research cited in the report that links stair climbing time to other types of walking. The report said research found that climbing stairs for four minutes is roughly equivalent to about 10 minutes of brisk walking or 20 minutes of slower walking.
Rodriguez and other experts also tie stair climbing to modern exercise guidance. The report said federal physical activity guidance was changed in 2018 to promote short-burst activities, including taking the stairs each time people have to move between floors at work, and it said those bursts can add up over a day even when a person cannot do a longer workout.
Stella Volpe, an exercise expert at Virginia Tech, said many people “don’t realize that they don’t have to exercise all in one bout for it to be effective.” Jennifer Gay, a public health researcher at the University of Georgia, said stair climbing can also improve mental health and is associated with improved feelings of energy. Both experts said people who might have trouble on stairs should talk with their doctors before starting a stair-climbing regimen.
The reporting also described how stairwells can become hard to access not because of medical reasons, but because of liability and safety concerns raised by building owners and landlords. The American Lung Association holds fundraising events each spring in office towers across the country called “Fight for Air,” and the report said the events are widely seen as fun. Organizers said the name comes from the shortness of breath some people experience after climbing dozens of floors, or from the viewpoint of people living with lung disease.
Landlords, however, are not always accommodating, the report said. Some law firms advise landlords and building owners that they could be held liable if someone trips or slips on a staircase, and factors such as poor lighting, liquid on steps and broken handrails can become cited in lawsuits if injuries occur.
The report said some building managers responded to that advice by limiting stair use to emergencies. It cited a study of hospital emergency department visits published in 2018 that concluded more than 1 million stair-related injuries occur in the United States each year, with broken bones more common in older people and with more than 60% of injured people being women.
Gay said her research indicates there is very little risk of injuries for people climbing stairs, while she argued going down stairs can be riskier. She added that building managers “can’t make it a one-way street,” describing the practical limits to any rule that would allow only some types of stair use.
For many people, stair climbing can also depend on finding places where stairwells are actually available. Lisa Bai, a real estate worker in New York, said she cannot use the stairs in her office building even though it might seem like an easy way to exercise, adding, “it’s not,” she said.
In the absence of access to stairs at work or home, some exercisers use alternatives. The report said fitness equipment such as StairMaster machines can approximate the physical work of stair climbing, though people who take part in tower climbs say it is not as arduous as the real thing. The report said people may also need to find other settings, such as parks, hills, or hospital parking decks, or make arrangements for stair access when they travel.
Carmen Erickson and Vivian Dawson, who live in the Detroit suburbs, said they have been meeting about three times a week to climb stairs, usually in a nearby park, for roughly a decade. When they vacation together, they said they stay on the top floor of tall hotels so they can use the stairs, and they look for hills and hospital parking decks as options.
They also described negotiating with at least one building for after-hours access to stairwells. The report said Erickson and Dawson agreed to sign a waiver and check in with security officers each time they entered the stairwell, with Erickson saying, “If you connect with the right people and tell them what they’re doing and agree to the rules, it hasn’t really been a problem for us.” Dawson, 64, added, “You have to really want to do it.”