Climb your way to a wrecked pair of legs.
Keep your torso upright and let your legs carry you, not your arms on the rails.
Tracking the stair machine by steps turns every session into a simple count that always tells the truth, each one a full bodyweight push from one leg. The rotating staircase never coasts, so unlike a bike or treadmill there is no free-wheeling moment, your legs and lungs are on for every single step. It is the pick for low-impact conditioning that scales from easy aerobic work to leg-burning intervals just by changing the pace.
Single steps keep a steady rhythm for longer aerobic sessions. Doubles lengthen each stride and demand more per step, useful for short harder efforts, but keep your torso tall either way.
Same machine, different scoreboard. Steps give you a finer-grained count for pacing and interval targets, floors bundle them into bigger milestones. Pick whichever number motivates you and be consistent with it.
You are probably climbing on your toes. Plant the whole foot on each step so the load spreads across the leg rather than piling up in the calves.
