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Comment by larsberg | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, I found that statement funny, since the first tech company I worked for was MSFT. Out in that area (the pacific northwest), physical activity is a huge deal -- hiking, skiing, and snowboarding especially. On every team I was on, the vast majority of the people were in stunningly good shape. Even the 35+, multiple-kids crowd.

I still remember one time that I almost killed an interview candidate by mistake. Ran down to pick him up in the lobby, and then started talking to him on the way up to our offices... realizing at the second of five floors that we needed to move this discussion to the elevator before he had a heart attack. We used the elevators so rarely that it hadn't even occurred to me!

Of course, there were strange things about it. Many people got season-long Mt. Baker lift passes, and you could basically write off schedule estimates for the first week of the season that there was enough powder on the ground.

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Taking the stairs is such an easy way to burn a few calories. It surprises me how few people do it in my office.

Although, as shown by your story, some people just aren't able to!

It always amuses me to see non-handicap people taking the elevator at the gym.

I think a lot of people unconsciously see the stairs as a fallback method to the elevator. Stairs in a commercial building are usually minimally decorated. They're "the fire escape."

The stairs in my office building are alarmed on the ground floor and only open on the 5th and 10th floors (from the stairs side).

In a lot of local buildings where I live the doors are locked from the stairwell side on every floor and locked from the outside at ground level. So you can use them to go down during a fire, but you can't use them to go up.

Yeah. Having been locked in stairwells before (luckily not for too long) I don't usually take the stairs unless they are out in the open.

Unless you're strength training. In which case, you may not care to climb the stairs as they don't really further your goals.

If you are squatting heavy, as you should be doing if you are training with the goal to increase your overall strength, walking up a couple floors shouldn't be too hard of a task and I am pretty sure there are more benefits to it than it would hurt your other goals.

I can attest to the fact that stairs are a breeze to climb if you're squatting heavy, and I'm not even squatting that heavy.

Stairs are a breeze to climb if you are even moderately fit. (Even climbing stairs will make you fit enough to climb stairs.)

Just climb them faster (=more power), and make it HIIT.

What if you going up say 3 stairs at once with every step? Fair bit of power required from the legs.

Some people have knee problems. Although sometimes those knee problems are alleviated by regular stair use...

Yeah I definitely have nothing against anyone who goes through actual pain, or anyone who has no reason for that matter. I was just stating that in my experience, very few of my officemates that I know are capable end up taking the stairs willingly. It's their choice to make.

I put up a leader board in the office yesterday for stair climbing times. I've got one other person interested and the competition has started already. :) Current best time is 44s for 8 floors.

Sometimes it is because of stupid building rules. The fire doors in my building are alarmed and you can't get in and out of them. You can only exit at the bottom and enter through upper floors in case of a fire.

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