If You Can Climb This Many Flights of Stairs Without Stopping, You’re in Peak Shape

Eatthis ^ | June 10, 2025 | Jarrod Nobbe, MA, CSCS

[ChicagoConservative27]

News flash: Your ability to climb stairs may be the ultimate health test. This everyday activity demands leg strength, cardiovascular fitness, balance, and coordination, especially when climbing flight after flight without stopping. It’s simple, accessible, and brutally honest about where your fitness stands.

Health professionals and performance coaches often use stair climbing to gauge heart health and endurance. In fact, a 2023 study published in Atherosclerosis found that climbing more than five flights of stairs (approx 50 steps) daily was associated with a lower risk of ASCVD types independent of disease susceptibility..

[Prov1322]

The last 1/4 mile of Clingmans Dome is paved and very deceptive. You look at it and think “what are people getting all worked up about?” Then you find yourself stopping every 200 feet or so. The Dome Tower views are worth it.

[shaggy eel]

How about falling down fifty steps without stopping and getting up to walk away?

,,, that's the Pelosi routine; only if you're looking to make a headline. Don't try it at home.

[Chickensoup]

Frank knee replacements gave me back my life. Worthever moment.

[tumblindice]

Hey Jack, Joe Biden can *fall* up five flights of stairs.

[Fuzz]

https://youtu.be/Agi-j-ieR7U?si=MIgAH-S8TiwXlbm2

[Robert357]

Bump for reference 50 stair steps.

[ChicagoConservative27]

Lmao

[linMcHlp]

My doctor was on the 7th floor; I used the stairs.

[ChicagoConservative27]

That’s good

[sopo]

Well I fell on my back in the driveway and didn’t sustain a bruise or sore back, so I’ve been calling myself Iron Bones-

[luckystarmom]

Bad hip and knee for me, but I can bike for a long time and I do a rowing machine at the gym for about 20 minutes multiple times a week.

[LittleBillyInfidel]

After two solid years on my IFit cycle training, I’ve been boasting how I’m ready for the Manitou Incline (see Google). Then, just last week, I did 15 steep stairs at an Airbnb. I learned that I am more delusional than in shape.

[DIRTYSECRET]

**Nobody lived past 74 before me.**

U R very smart.

[Albion Wilde]

Climbing up — no problem. My knees object to coming down, however.

[sjm_888]

Bkmrk

[Fledermaus]

It’s up there.

[Fledermaus]

Thank you. Getting old.

[mass55th]

"U R very smart."

Hopefully for never smoking, and you're not making fun of any bad grammar I may have exhibited 😀

[wardaddy]

1.3 miles high
High for around here

[Myrddin]

A typical run of stairs is 10’ per 8’ ceiling for each floors. A typical stair height is 7.5”. That totals 16 stairs per floor, not 10. 10 steps would be 12” high, quite a challenge. Five flights of stairs would total 80 steps, not 50.

My house has 16 steps to the 2nd floor bedrooms from the front door. The path to the basement is 16 steps as well. When I returned from months in the hospital, climbing from the first to 2nd floor took 10 minutes. I didn't dare venture to the basement. Today, it is a 15 second traversal between any two floors in either direction. I purchased the house with stairs intentionally to stay in good physical condition. I'll turn 69 in August.