Loving the Stairs

Categories: Blog Aug 12, 2015

[caption id="attachment_4434" align="alignleft" width="330"] Intimidating to some, a fun challenge to others.[/caption]

A couple of months ago my wife and I were watching one of those house-hunting shows. A young couple moved from America to Germany, and were looking for the perfect apartment within their budget. One of the apartments they really liked. It was just about everything they imagined. Except for one problem: Stairs. It was on the top floor of the building (only five stories) and they would’ve had to walk up and down the stairs every day. 

You can probably guess how the show ended. This young couple settled for another apartment, one that didn’t have everything they wanted because it didn’t have stairs.

I felt bad for them. Inside I was rooting for them to “take the stairs” because it would’ve been so good for them - a little bit of exercise every day would’ve been built into their lives. But alas, it was not to be. They feared the stairs.

Lots of people do. Most people will take the elevator or the escalator. Rarely the stairs. 

I know how they feel. I used to HATE stairs.

Not because they made me feel winded or out of shape. Rather every step was like torture on my knees. I’d been seeing the doctor since around age 13 or so for knee pain. Stairs were not my friend. Especially as I got into my 20s. By the time I was in my early 30s, my knee pain was so bad, climbing stairs caused the “automatic breath-holding and hissing” response. You know, the one you automatically do when you smash your thumb with something. Yeah, that’s the one. Feels great, doesn’t it? Now imagine that sensation in both your knees when going up stairs. Double it for coming down stairs. So. Much. Fun.

Today, I am amazed every time I go up or come down stairs. Seriously. It’s something on the forefront of my mind. Weird, probably, I know. But you have to understand, when you experience something painful for 20+ years and then you experience the absence of pain - the sensation of nothing - well… That is truly amazing.

Now I take every opportunity to take the stairs. Airports. Malls. You name it. If there are stairs, I take them. Up. Down. Just my bodyweight or luggage on my back and in my hands. When you can’t do something for what seems like forever, and then you can? It seems like a treat - a joy - like getting part of you back that you lost. (Because I did.)

You may be wondering how I got from 20+ years of chronic knee pain that hurt so bad sometimes it took my breath away to running up stairs in the airport with a 40 pound backpack on my back. 

It was quite simple really: I do Original Strength resets every day. Every. Day.

Any special ones? The resets that seem to make the biggest difference for me are rocking and loaded crawling. However, I do the Big Five daily. Why do I do them every day? Because of entropy - the inevitable decay and decline of the human machine toward disorder and chaos. In other words, the resets keep me sharp, mobile, and resilient. And the more I do them, the sharper, more mobile, and more resilient I become. So as I approach the age of 43, I don’t have to worry about pulling a hamstring when I break into a sprint because my little boy says, “Run faster, Dad!”

Much of the “decline” of the human body as we age is reversible. We don’t have to settle for this, that, or the next “condition” that’s associated with aging. We can do something about it (instead of taking pills and using cremes). 

We can remain not only young at heart, but young in body. The simplest way to do so? Taking 5 to 10 minutes each day to “press reset.”

---