Excellent article. My mantra for the past few years has been “just keep moving”. If I am moving I am pretty sure I am not dead. It seems to me that somewhere along the line we developed the notion that we should respond to aging by taking it easy so that we don’t hurt ourselves. My experience is that the exact opposite is true. As I have aged I find that I need to push myself physically, and mentally, harder. Neglecting to do so accelerates my decline at an astonishing rate. So, I push myself constantly to lift more, stretch more and walk more and to actively seek paths in my day to day activities that force me to climb. The results when I slack off are terrifying. The results when I push myself are inspiring. While being careless about it and not accounting for the reality that time breaks us all down is a mistake, the evidence is clear that we can slow our decline dramatically by pushing ourselves physically and mentally. I seem to recall reading somewhere that there was a remarkably high correlation between active life expectancy and the degree of elevation change that people covered over the course of their days across most or all of the so called blue zones around the world. While I am very careful when connecting correlation to causation in general, I say bring on the stairs.
I don't understand how you resolve this line: "At some point, the stairs can become an issue."
... with, "We need smart compromises, because there are obviously people with disabilities who need universal design and full accessibility. But we shouldn’t lose the stairs because people also need the exercise."
It's not about stairs, it's about remaining active, PERIOD. Many more people fall down stairs and become seriously injured when they're elderly than they do maintaining health simply by traversing stairs multiple times a day. I fail to understand how you're trying to thread the needle by stating BOTH can be true and that people should put stairs into their homes strictly for the purported health benefits.
The Japanese study? It's an attribution study, and doesn't necessarily reflect anything any more than two completely disparate metrics correlating. A person gets just as good of health benefits walking on loose sand at the beach, all without having to rip out a corner of one's home to install stairs or a lift.
Amen Lloyd, use it or lose it as the old physical fitness adage says! Learned the excellent conditioning ability of stair climbing in the 9th grade at my first basketball practice. Coach had us run the steps on the bleachers. I was so sore the next day I had to stay home from school. Fast forward to now and building and renovating stairs is one of my favorite jobs as a carpenter. I think stairs have gotten a bad rap because there are so many poorly designed examples out there. I rebuilt one last month w/ 8 1/2" treads and 8 1/2" risers resulting in a 45 degree climb. Rebuilding another next month with 11 1/2" treads and a proper 7 5/8" rise. Problem is the top tread has no nose overhang, but the remaining 13 treads have a 2 1/2" nose. Your first step down lands on a nice big tread, only to have to adjust mid stride to a 9" tread for the rest of the descent. Owner has already tumbled down once. As always the devil is in the details. Or in the geometry as far as stairs go.
Thank you - I have been a supporter of stairs for many years, understanding the various muscles required for going both up and down (different muscles required for each direction). My partner wants a bungalow but certainly NOT bungalow legs(LOL) so this is good evidence to support staying in a small 2-storey.
Way to go, making something as pedestrian as stairs interesting. I often opt for the stairs, yet it bothers me that no matter where I am, even some of the fanciest places around, when I enter the stairwell it is one of the bleakest surroundings possible, clanky metal stairs inside a blank white column, no design, no art, nothing.
Are you familiar with Irving Gill? He was an early 20th century architect who knew that people liked stairs. Many of his homes have wide stairways, the kind that folks will sit on and children will play on.
Thanks for this. I am happy to live in a house with stairs, in a hilly little town where people seem to live to a very good age. I got a dog recently to enhance the benefit Fwiw, I started following you years ago when you did a series on stairs on treehugger. They were beautiful.
Oh joy! More points for my temporary kitchen in the basement of my year-after-year unfinished home. The kitchen's stair points will add to the kitchen's cool-in-the-summer points. And then there is a multiplication factor for the stair points given that I haul buckets of kitchen water up the stairs to flush the toilet.
77 years old and prospering - because of luck? ... stairs? ... walking and bicycling? ... About 4 years ago I exchanged the car for walking and bicycling.
Excellent article. My mantra for the past few years has been “just keep moving”. If I am moving I am pretty sure I am not dead. It seems to me that somewhere along the line we developed the notion that we should respond to aging by taking it easy so that we don’t hurt ourselves. My experience is that the exact opposite is true. As I have aged I find that I need to push myself physically, and mentally, harder. Neglecting to do so accelerates my decline at an astonishing rate. So, I push myself constantly to lift more, stretch more and walk more and to actively seek paths in my day to day activities that force me to climb. The results when I slack off are terrifying. The results when I push myself are inspiring. While being careless about it and not accounting for the reality that time breaks us all down is a mistake, the evidence is clear that we can slow our decline dramatically by pushing ourselves physically and mentally. I seem to recall reading somewhere that there was a remarkably high correlation between active life expectancy and the degree of elevation change that people covered over the course of their days across most or all of the so called blue zones around the world. While I am very careful when connecting correlation to causation in general, I say bring on the stairs.
I don't understand how you resolve this line: "At some point, the stairs can become an issue."
... with, "We need smart compromises, because there are obviously people with disabilities who need universal design and full accessibility. But we shouldn’t lose the stairs because people also need the exercise."
It's not about stairs, it's about remaining active, PERIOD. Many more people fall down stairs and become seriously injured when they're elderly than they do maintaining health simply by traversing stairs multiple times a day. I fail to understand how you're trying to thread the needle by stating BOTH can be true and that people should put stairs into their homes strictly for the purported health benefits.
The Japanese study? It's an attribution study, and doesn't necessarily reflect anything any more than two completely disparate metrics correlating. A person gets just as good of health benefits walking on loose sand at the beach, all without having to rip out a corner of one's home to install stairs or a lift.
Amen Lloyd, use it or lose it as the old physical fitness adage says! Learned the excellent conditioning ability of stair climbing in the 9th grade at my first basketball practice. Coach had us run the steps on the bleachers. I was so sore the next day I had to stay home from school. Fast forward to now and building and renovating stairs is one of my favorite jobs as a carpenter. I think stairs have gotten a bad rap because there are so many poorly designed examples out there. I rebuilt one last month w/ 8 1/2" treads and 8 1/2" risers resulting in a 45 degree climb. Rebuilding another next month with 11 1/2" treads and a proper 7 5/8" rise. Problem is the top tread has no nose overhang, but the remaining 13 treads have a 2 1/2" nose. Your first step down lands on a nice big tread, only to have to adjust mid stride to a 9" tread for the rest of the descent. Owner has already tumbled down once. As always the devil is in the details. Or in the geometry as far as stairs go.
Thank you - I have been a supporter of stairs for many years, understanding the various muscles required for going both up and down (different muscles required for each direction). My partner wants a bungalow but certainly NOT bungalow legs(LOL) so this is good evidence to support staying in a small 2-storey.
Way to go, making something as pedestrian as stairs interesting. I often opt for the stairs, yet it bothers me that no matter where I am, even some of the fanciest places around, when I enter the stairwell it is one of the bleakest surroundings possible, clanky metal stairs inside a blank white column, no design, no art, nothing.
Are you familiar with Irving Gill? He was an early 20th century architect who knew that people liked stairs. Many of his homes have wide stairways, the kind that folks will sit on and children will play on.
Thanks for this. I am happy to live in a house with stairs, in a hilly little town where people seem to live to a very good age. I got a dog recently to enhance the benefit Fwiw, I started following you years ago when you did a series on stairs on treehugger. They were beautiful.
Oh joy! More points for my temporary kitchen in the basement of my year-after-year unfinished home. The kitchen's stair points will add to the kitchen's cool-in-the-summer points. And then there is a multiplication factor for the stair points given that I haul buckets of kitchen water up the stairs to flush the toilet.
77 years old and prospering - because of luck? ... stairs? ... walking and bicycling? ... About 4 years ago I exchanged the car for walking and bicycling.