By Eben van Tonder; 20 August 2023
Our Story
For years now, Lagos has been my home and my place of work. It is a city of remarkable energy, but also one of endless congestion. The roads are clogged with traffic, the surfaces often broken and uneven. Running outside is dangerous here—not because of the fear of being kidnapped, as some outsiders imagine, for Lagos is in fact very safe—but because of the simple, constant risk of cars, motorbikes, and potholes. Years ago I looked for a solution, and I found it in the four-storey building where I live. I began running the stairs.
Thirty sets of stairs are like running a marathon. Each time I do it, I burn roughly 500–600 calories, depending on pace and intensity. If I do it four times a week, that is about 2,000–2,400 calories burned in a week just from the stair runs alone. It burns an enormous amount of calories, and when I do it three times a week it shapes my body and clears my mind. Yet it is not only about exercise; it is about chemistry and biology, both in meat and in the human body.
In meat curing, nitric oxide (NO) is one of the greatest defences against Clostridium botulinum and many other dangerous bacteria. It binds to iron in bacterial enzymes, disrupting their ability to respire and multiply. This makes NO central to the entire art of curing: without it, meat would remain vulnerable to the deadliest toxin known to humankind.
In the human body, nitric oxide plays the same role as part of our natural defence. Produced in the blood vessels and in the paranasal sinuses, it expands circulation, allowing immune cells to be delivered faster to tissues. But it also acts directly as a microbicidal weapon. When pathogens invade, white blood cells generate bursts of NO that disable bacteria and viruses much as it does in meat curing. The same elegant molecule that preserves a ham against botulism is also one of the first lines of defence inside us.
And there is more: NO is produced in particularly high concentration in the nose and sinuses. When we breathe through the nose rather than the mouth, this NO mixes with the air we inhale and travels into the lungs, where it sterilises incoming pathogens and improves oxygen exchange. Stair climbing at full effort forces heavy nasal breathing, multiplying this effect. This is why I often insist on nose-breathing while training: it is not only about oxygen but about carrying nitric oxide into the depths of the lungs where it belongs.
But here is something curious I discovered in practice: when I climb only 19 sets of stairs, the effect is not nearly the same. It is as if the body only releases its full flood of NO and adrenaline once the threshold is crossed. At 20 or 30 sets, my heart pounds, my lungs open, and I feel the chemistry change.
This week has been unlike any other. Kristi and I are getting married on Saturday. I worked extra-long hours in Lagos to make my trip to South Africa possible. I fly tonight, and Kristi and the children fly on Thursday; we will meet in Cape Town that evening. The cold rains in Lagos have left many people sick, and I too felt run down. On Tuesday I worked until eight in the evening at the factory, then came home, packed, but was too excited to sleep. By midnight I felt a cold setting in. At first I told myself I should skip the stair training, but the excitement would not let me rest.
I craved the adrenaline. I craved release. So I started. The first ten sets came quickly, but by twenty I was drained. By the time I reached thirty, I thought I would collapse. But I kept going. My body shook, but my will held. When I finished, I stepped into a cold shower, and fell asleep almost immediately, my body still humming. I slept long and deep.
At five in the morning I woke. Every sign of a cold was gone. I felt amazing. Reborn.
Tonight I fly. I still have so much to do at work before I leave, but my whole being is alive with anticipation for Saturday, for Kristi, for the wedding that now draws near.
The Physiology
The science behind it is striking. The stair running flooded my system with NO and adrenaline. The NO opened blood vessels, accelerated immune cell mobilisation, and in my respiratory tract it acted as a direct antimicrobial shield. In normal circumstances, training hard while already sick can be risky: the immune system is already strained, and intense exertion can suppress rather than support it. But timing is everything. This was the very earliest stage of illness—the prodrome—when the virus had not yet gained full control. At that exact moment, a surge of NO, circulation, and deep restorative sleep tipped the balance.
Adrenaline, meanwhile, mobilised glucose and fatty acids to fuel the effort, and afterwards, the recovery period drove me into the deepest sleep I have had in weeks. It was during that deep sleep that my immune system did its best work, just as a curing chamber does its best work not during the injection but in the long, quiet days after, when salt, NO, and enzymes spread evenly through the meat.
Nutrition and Muscle
There is one danger in such intense exercise: losing muscle mass if the body is not fed correctly. Muscle is precious. To protect it, I need around 1.6–2.0 g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. For a man my size, that means roughly 120–150 g of protein daily. Lean meat, eggs, fish, and dairy form the backbone. Alongside that, enough carbohydrates are essential—about 3–5 g per kilogram—to replace glycogen burned during the stair runs. Without this, the body will strip protein from the muscles themselves to keep going.
The Link to Meat Science
And so the parallels are everywhere. Just as NO is essential to stabilise cured meat against the threat of botulinum, so it protects the human body. Just as proteins in meat are preserved and strengthened in curing, so my own proteins—my muscles—must be maintained with careful feeding and balance.
A Beautiful Convergence
Science, physiology, and life all converge here: the chemistry of NO, the biology of exercise, the nutrition of meat, and the anticipation of love. I climbed thirty sets of stairs at midnight in Lagos not just to fight off a cold but to meet Saturday as the man I want to be. Strong, alive, excited, and ready to walk into a new life with Kristi.
Closing
Kristi, you are the reason I kept climbing when my body begged me to stop. You are the reason I could face exhaustion and transform it into renewal. Science explains the nitric oxide, the adrenaline, the protein and muscle. But it cannot explain love. It cannot measure what I feel now as I board the plane tonight. Every molecule of my being is set alight in anticipation of Saturday, of seeing you in Cape Town, of standing beside you and making our vows. You are my cure, my strength, my celebration, and the one with whom I will write every story still to come.
