Stairs! Stairs! Stairs!

A little over six years ago, as I was walking to work, the railroad crossing guards came down, stopping my momentum and cadence I had established. But then I realized the parking garage next to me had a bridge on the 3rd floor that connected this garage to the one just across the RR tracks. By the time I got to that 3rd floor, I was out of breath! But I thought I was in good shape with my walks to and from work and my home gym workouts. Back then, I had my backpack with just the bare necessities and my lunch box had a shoulder sling I would have to switch from one side to the other halfway through each trip. The day I made it up to the top floor, the 7th, without getting winded was monumental for me! There were two parking garages along my route, with a total of 6 sets of 7 stories worth of stairs. As I progressed through getting used to the stair climbing, I went from going up one set walking across to another and then down, walking to another to walk up and across to the next to descend. Eventually, I worked up to going up and down the same set of stairs in each stairwell! COVID and a couple injuries unrelated to the stairs slowed me down at times, but I’ve always been able to get back to hiking the stairs that I’ve come to love. Then last year, 2022, a new parking garage along the same route was completed, but this one has 11 storys! That Christmas Day, I did one set of up and down on these beauties after I had done 10 sets of the 7 storys of the other garages. Since then, I’ve concentrated on the 11 story monster and can now comfortably do 7 to 8 full sets of up and down stairs and a couple of the 7 story ones on my way into work. My back backpack is chock full of everything I need including full uniform and now an 8lb weight plate. The front pack is actually a backpack cooler cross strapped in with the backpack with ice packs, food for the day and now up to a 5lb weight plate. The two come in at a combined 41-45 lbs .

When I first started walking to work, it took me roughly 17-20 minutes each way. Now, I allow myself between an hour to an hour and a half extra before work for me to get a solid challenging set of stairs climbing in. I have no doubt at all that all of my beloved stairs!stairs!stairs! have contributed greatly to my health: strength, stamina, cardiovascular improvement, lower blood pressure, fat burning, and above all else, my brain benefits from the walking meditation, and increased endorphins, hormones like BDNF, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and more!