Stairwell Workouts During Coronavirus Quarantine

Virus on Netflix, Mendoza, Argentina, 2020

Run (or Walk) the Stairs!

If you–like many millions of us the world over–are locked down or quarantined in a building with multiple floors and a rarely-trod stairwell, and you feel like you are slowly losing command of your cranial marbles, this blog’s for you.

Central Park Tower, NYC, 98 floors… Empire State Building, NYC, 102 floors… One World Trade Center, NYC, 104 floors… Sears/Willis Tower, Chicago, 110 floors… and, ooooh-aaaah, the Burj Khalifa, Dubai, 163 floors and over 2700 feet tall (if you shinny up the antenna)!

Then, there is Villa Palmares, Mendoza, Argentina, 16 floors (counting the parking garages)–our current “coronavirus refuge” until the curve flattens in Spain and we can safely return.

Even if you have just a two-story apartment… work with what you have!

Stairwell, #1, Mendoza, Argentina, 2020

Initial Considerations

Before you rush out into the stairwell and go nuts, think about this…

–Are you healthy enough for what can be very strenuous aerobic exercise? What does your friendly doc (and your latest EKG) say? Regardless, start MUCH more slowly than you think necessary to avoid going anaerobic and provoking runaway heart palpitations–it is very easy to do on stairs.

So…

–With your first few sessions, go easy and keep your pulse rate under control. It is sooo easy to find yourself doubled over out of breath, chest heaving, before you realize it. You should be able to carry on a conversation as you walk up. This would correspond to no more than 70% of your max heart rate for your age (220 – Your Age = Max HR… roughly).  

–Do you have permission to use the stairwell? Is it OK to use during your lockdown/quarantine?

–Even if it is not off limits, is it a good idea to occupy that space for exercise? Is there a lot of people traffic there already? Is the stairway design dangerous in any way? Which leads me to…

–Are you prone to tripping? Do you have big, ungainly feet and tiny stair steps? Maybe consider somewhere else for your exercise–this is not the time to get hurt thus taking up medical resources that are needed to fight the epidemic.

–Don’t run down the stairs. Use those downhills to recover–and it is not the place for falling on your face. 

–Don’t touch the walls or railings (unless it is to avoid a fall). 

–Wear footwear with good grip–running shoes, perhaps, or a lightweight pair of hiking shoes.

–If you are worried about balance, maybe consider hiking poles with rubber non-skid tips unless they would make things too ungainly.

–If you do miss a step, or trip, you might be pushing it too hard or you are getting knackered–so back off a bit. Safety first, dontcha know!

–Consider wearing a mask so as to not send your savory spittle everywhere.

–Get in a good 5 to 10-minute warm up before starting uphill… by walking down first, or doing some gentle in-place aerobics.

–If you get dizzy winding up and down through the many turns in one direction, consider doing a sort of backwards 270-degree maneuver to “unwind” every other landing. 

–Finally, if you get dizzy for any other reason–stop!

Workout Ideas

Here is a list of possibilities starting from easy and working up the scale:

1. Walk up one step at a time, pausing at each landing to keep your heart from exploding.
2. Walk confidently up all the floors in your building, one step at a time, without stopping.
3. Walk up two steps at a time, pausing at each landing to recover a bit.
4. Walk up two steps at a time, no stopping, pretending to be Tenzing Norgay.
5. Jog smoothly up one step at a time. To start out, just jog one of, say, every second, third, fourth, or fifth stair sets. Work up to jogging up the entire height of your building.
6. Jog (charge?) up two steps at a time like Hilaree Nelson on Lhotse.
7. Carry a backpack with ever-increasing weight using any of the previous ideas.
8. Try some plyometric-type jumps here and there. (But don’t miss your target step!)
9. If you can go up three steps at a time, more power to you!

Fine tuning the options

The number of floors you have in your building will certainly shape what you can do… in shorter buildings you might have to get imaginative.

Faster intervals up 2, 4, 5, or even 8 floors, then down, rather than all the way to the top.

One floor sprints–but don’t trip!

Endurance–try to do 50, 100, 200, 500 floors in one session. Yeah! Compare your floor count for the day with the tallest buildings in the world.

Time yourself up the entire building, or up a predetermined number of floors. Check your times every week or so to monitor progress.

Inspiration

Don’t have a stairwell? Well, maybe take some inspiration from this guy:

Or, you could calculate/measure your vertical feet and “climb Mt. Everest”, as this guy did in his three-story condo:

Climbing the height of Mount Everest from the comfort of your own home