> How long does it take you to climb 20 stories if you're having to do it every single day of your life so you're used to it? Let's say a generous 10 seconds per floor, so that's around 3 and a half minutes.
People would certainly be more fit in such a world. In ours, climbing 20 stories is not something many people can do at all, never mind do willingly every day. But even for a fit person, 20 stories at 10sec/story is definitely not "generous", more like a great athletic achievement given how strenuous it is to climb stairs compared to walking or running on flat ground. Gravity is a bitch.
Well, I'm an old man, in not such great shape. And I can go up five floors in less than a minute. If I'm tired, I just walk up, two steps per stride, with help using the hand rail. That's actually easier for me than going up one step per stride. And going down is harder on my knees.
Climbing five floors is qualitatively different from twenty. You can do the former anaerobically easily enough, but the latter is firmly in the aerobic regime unless you're an Olympic-level 400m sprinter.
People would certainly be more fit in such a world. In ours, climbing 20 stories is not something many people can do at all, never mind do willingly every day. But even for a fit person, 20 stories at 10sec/story is definitely not "generous", more like a great athletic achievement given how strenuous it is to climb stairs compared to walking or running on flat ground. Gravity is a bitch.