climbing 8 floor stairs daily is it a good practice

Question

Every day I climb 8 stories of stairs. I'm 23, and my friends say if we daily climb 8 stories that in the future there will be knee problems and all.

Are they right? If so can you suggest any better way.

Answer 1

Until elevators and steel girder construction around the turn of the 19th century, the tallest buildings were usually five stories. People worked in those fifth stories for years.

Also, plenty of jobs have people walking up and down hills all day for decades, starting as small children.

It's actually sort of sad that people consider eight flights of steps a day to be something that is beyond the scope of what a healthy human body can do.

If you have problems, it will likely be from over-use, as you adapt to the load on your body. But if you've been doing it continuously without any ill effects, you can rest easy knowing it's fine. If something starts to hurt, cut back and ride the elevator up. If it feels good, keep doing it.

And tell your friends to stop giving you poor advice.

Answer 2

It's highly unlikely you will have any long term ill effects from climbing 8 stories stairs daily.

Nonetheless you might want to consider the same supplemental excercises for the thighs that e.g. joggers or cyclist do, such as stretching thighs

or massaging with a blackroll

This will prevent the musculature from becoming stiff and avoid unnecesarry pressure on the knee caps.

Answer 3

As with any form of exercise, it is possible to accrue injury by doing it incorrectly. For stair-climbing, the key to avoiding knee strain is to keep your body over your knee while ascending. When going up a step, place your foot on the step, shift your weight over it, and then push up. Odds are you're already doing it, since climbing with your weight further back is uncomfortable for most people, but I figured it was worth mentioning.

Answer 4

Your friends are idiots. (So are mine. That's not really a dig.)

That said, as other posters have said, make sure you're doing it right. Don't let your knees cave inwards as you put pressure on the lead foot. keep the weight over that lead foot. That should be about it.

(That said, be smart. If you do start getting sore knees, no one will go hungry or have their village overrun if you take the elevator a few times. I promise.*)

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^{*This promise is only 99.9% guaranteed. Acts of Gahd are not covered.}