Tom McGee began climbing stairs for exercise about 20 years ago as part of an effort to stay off cigarettes, and he said the routine has sometimes led security guards to question him—particularly when he uses hotel stairwells. McGee, 69, lives near Chicago and said he has been kicked out of about every hotel in the city.
Health experts and researchers say stair climbing has become more common as exercise guidance emphasizes short-burst activity. But many people who do it regularly say it can be challenging in an era where office tower managers cut off access to stairwells.
“You are working your legs. You are working your heart. You are working your lungs,” said Dr. Luis Rodriguez, a semi-retired pediatric pulmonologist. Rodriguez, 66, said: “You can get a lot more benefit than just walking, because gravity is working against you.”
A research summary cited in the report found that climbing stairs for four minutes is roughly equivalent to about 10 minutes of brisk walking or 20 minutes of slower walking. The report also points to changes in federal physical activity guidance in 2018 that promote short-burst activity such as taking the stairs between floors at work, saying such activity can add up over the course of a day.
Many people, however, “don’t realize that they don’t have to exercise all in one bout for it to be effective,” said Stella Volpe, a Virginia Tech exercise expert. Jennifer Gay, a public health researcher at the University of Georgia, said stair climbing also has the potential to improve mental health and is associated with improved feelings of energy.
Experts said people who might have trouble on stairs should talk to their doctors before trying a climbing regimen.
To some building owners, stairs can be seen less as a workout opportunity and more as a liability. The American Lung Association holds “Fight for Air” fundraising events each spring in office towers across the country, and organizers say the name reflects the shortness of breath people can experience after climbing dozens of floors—or when dealing with a lung disease.
The report says some law firms tell landlords and building owners they can be held liable if someone trips or slips on a staircase. Poor lighting, liquid on steps, and broken handrails are among the conditions that can be cited in lawsuits if someone falls and gets hurt, and the report says some building managers have taken that advice to heart by restricting stairwells to emergencies.
The report cited a study of hospital emergency department visits published in 2018 that concluded more than 1 million stair-related injuries occur in the U.S. each year, with broken bones more common in older people and more than 60% of the injured being women. Gay said research suggests there’s very little risk of injuries for people climbing stairs, while saying going down stairs can be riskier and that building managers “can’t make it a one-way street.”
For more than a decade, health advocates have pressed for better access to steps, the report said. In 2013, a California-based nonprofit, ChangeLab Solutions, issued a resource guide urging property owners to open their stairwells and arguing they posed no greater liability risk than other common areas. Gay and her colleagues estimated that 60% of U.S. workers do their jobs in multistory buildings with stairwells, but the report said there are no statistics showing what percentage of those buildings restrict stair access.
Even for people who want to climb regularly, access can be inconsistent. Lisa Bai, a New Yorker who works in real estate, said she isn’t able to use the stairs in her office building and said sometimes “it’s not.” The report said people sometimes find substitutes, including StairMaster machines, which can approximate the physical work of stair climbing, though people who participate in tower climbs said it isn’t as arduous as the real thing.
Others said they get creative when stairs are limited at home, at work, or in public spaces. 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.
The report said travel can add friction for stair climbers. Erickson and Dawson said when they vacation together they try to stay on the top floor of tall hotels so they can use the stairs, and they look for hills and hospital parking decks. The report also said they negotiated after-hours access to one building’s stairwells, agreeing to sign a waiver and check in with security officers each time.
Erickson, 53, said: “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.”