What I learned carrying a pair of heavy dumbbells up 24 flights of stairs

Most people who buy dumbbells do so with very noble intentions. I believe myself to be such a man, so I too purchased dumbbells; and not just any kind, 12.5 kilos each.

When I first bought them, I surely put them to use. For a while I was even proud of myself, but sooner or later, laziness gets the better of most of us, and I was no exception.

It had been months since I put those dumbbells to good use, so I decided to finally make use of them today. I decided to walk up a flight of stairs (24 flights of stairs to be precise). My room mate thought for a while that I might be going insane. Well, that’s his opinion. (He’s bought his weights and they’re just gathering dust)

With gyms closed due to COVID, you really need to get creative. Given that most people in my building do not use the stairs, I knew that there would be no one to bother me.

There I was, on the ground floor with one dumbbell in each hand (each weighing 12.5 kilos) ready to start.

Just 3 flights of stairs and I felt the difficulty of this task. I set the dumbbells aside and sat down to breathe for a while. This was surely not going to be easy.

I’ve not kept track of the precise breaks taken on the way up, but it’s safe to say that I was stopping for a while, every three flights of stairs ( I managed to do 6 at a time on one certain attempt). By the time I reached the 6th floor, I could feel my legs getting some training too. Now it wasn’t just the shoulders.

I’m not sure how long it took me to reach floor number 24, but I am sure that I was sweating and breathing heavily by the time I reached there.

Having reached the top after such exertion, it was reasonable to call the lift and make my way back to the 6th floor where I live. Reason, however, did not have a hold of me at that point of time and I decided to go down the stairs till I reached the sixth floor.

What surprised me now was that coming down somehow seemed to be even more strenuous. I had to be even more careful and could not simply jump down. Now I found myself stopping at almost every two floors, all the while feeling the slight burn in the legs.

By the term I reached home, I felt quite proud of what I did and learnt something valuable:

This could possibly be the best way to combine cardio and strength and have some fun on the way !

I am planning to do this every day. (Let’s hope I pull this one off unlike other resolutions)