How would you feel after climbing six flights of stairs?

[Adreno]

I had to climb six flights of very steep stairs quite quickly today.

I’m quite unfit but have been trying lately to eat better, lose some weight, and move more.

Just wondering, how you would feel after doing that and what’s your general fitness level?

I’m 40, for reference.

My legs would hurt and I'd probably be out of breath. I'd say I'm fairly fit. I exercise every day (only for 20 minutes though) but climbing stairs isn't something I do often. One thing I've started doing to try and improve my fitness is running up stairs instead of walking. Easy way to get a little burst of activity in!

I am anaemic at the moment so even one flight of stairs leaves me slightly breathless with legs heavy as lead. 6 flights would be unthinkable without stopping often. I have learnt the hard way that pushing yourself while anaemic will take you exactly nowhere.

when I'm not anaemic I'm pretty fit. My parents live on a seventh floor and I would normally start getting out of breath on the 6th floor

A good measure is how long you take to recover as well. I think it's ok to be a bit out of breath but you breathing & heart rate should recover within 1-2 mins

Out of breath and a bit lightheaded, sweaty.

I'm 35, not very fit but not overweight, I live on the fourth floor. By the fourth I'm feeling a bit strained - blood pounding in my ears, out of breath, etc. I am normally lazy enough to take the lift!

I went up a static escalator at Kings Cross. At the bottom I underestimated how many steps there were and it was a real struggle, but I couldn’t stop and rest because there were so many people on the steps. Needed a bit of a rest at the top.

Mind you, I did come down with covid a couple of days later.

Fine, but it’s years of doing sports, since I was a teenager I suppose.

I refuse to use lifts unless there is no choice. I hate them. Standing still in a little box, sometimes squished in with others.
So I'm the person who will be found trying to work out how to escape out of a hotel when using the emergency exit steps that don't take you anywhere near the lobby.

I think I'd need a defibrillator somewhere between the 4th and 5th floors.

Having an elevated heart rate and breathing a bit heavier when you exert yourself is healthy and normal - it's how your body gets fuel and oxygen to your muscles to enable them to work hard.

Provided your breathing returns to normal fairly soon, this is all a good sign of fitness.

It depends I am prone to anaemia so probably pretty winded but if my Iron levels were ok probably I'd be ok too with a burn in my thighs perhaps.

Fairly sure I could do it, but I would be a bit puffed by the time I got to the top of the climb. I'm 67, live in a hilly area and have a large, fit dog so I walk at least five days a week, plus Pilates x2.

Steady I would be ok…rushing I probably would be sick half way up hahaha

Probably deceased

I'd be shattered and I'm only 25 but I'm 15st 🤣

I’m fine. Also 40, but I haven’t used a lift for well over 20 years and so always take the stairs, at least twice a week I carry shopping up to the 8th floor and have recently stayed in hotels on the 6th, 23rd and 26th floors - still not getting in the lift. (Sometimes I put shopping in the lift and meet it at the top though if no one else is around)

I’ve just always taken the stairs and I always take them at speed.

That may be true actually, in the research on the blue zones they actually correlated life expectancy with the steepness of Italian villages!

It's certainly good cardio!

I’m always out of breath after climbing 6 flights of stairs but recover quickly (my heart rate was around 80 after doing it when I checked yesterday). I’m reasonably fit and run a lot (half marathon this Sunday) but stairs always leave me out of breath (just slightly) but it’s great exercise.
I take the lift mainly as we aren’t allowed to look at phones on the stairs!

Should have said I’m 48 and half a stone overweight.

Kind of pleased with myself now because while I definitely have a way to go in terms of working on my fitness, I’m taking comfort in the fact that I seem pretty average, based on this thread. A year ago I wouldn’t have been able for them at all.

Well done OP, you should be pleased! That is a great improvement in only a year!

I have an "excellent for your age" score on fitbit cardio app.
My age is mid 50s.

I would climb as fast as I could comfortably.
Would arrive dizzy & very puffed out.

I'd be bored for a start. Also knackered.

Can I cycle up them? I can do that.

I would probably have keeled over by the 4th floor. In my defence my extreme unfitness is due to several years of severe anaemia and a recent surgery.

Knackered.

A few years ago, my dad was in the hospital and I went to visit. He was on the top floor and the lifts took ages so I thought I'd take the stairs. 8 floors later, I was ready to shove him out of the bed and climb in myself.

I'd be fine. 55 years old. If I am doing it briskly, my leg muscles will start to burn and start to breathe harder at the top but will recover in a minute.

I race up and down the long London tube escalators so this won't faze me.