You’ve probably been invited to take part in a “steps challenge” with your coworkers, family, or circle of friends at some point. The concept is straightforward: Continue to move your feet until you reach 10,000 steps.
For some, this is an easy feat—a goal they achieve without even trying because they have a profession or a regular schedule that requires them to walk. For many others, especially those who are tied to their computers (for work or amusement), it’s a physical exercise goal that necessitates more focus and intention.
Keeping your body in motion is important for living a long and healthy life, right? But have you ever pondered why the magic daily number is 10,000 steps—and where that number originates from? And does it make a difference if you get slightly less or slightly more? Here’s what experts and studies have to say about it—and why this number is regarded to be so important for both short- and long-term physical and mental health.
The 10,000-step rule’s origins
When the 1964 Summer Olympics were hosted in Tokyo, Japan, a professor called Yoshiro Hatano became interested in determining the most effective strategies for combating heart disease and obesity. He intended to develop a means to calculate the number of calories burned while exercising throughout his studies. Hatano predicted that doing 10,000 steps per day—the equivalent of around five miles—would result in a 20% increase in calories expended for the average individual. Hatano then developed the ‘Manpo-Kei,’ a pedometer-like device designed to encourage people to get up and move during the Olympic season, when health and fitness were on many people’s minds.
The name itself used the Japanese character for 10,000, which resembles a moving human. The concept and pedometer remain popular in Japan to this day.
It has since extended to the United States and other nations, becoming the health standard advocated by the WHO, CDC, and the American Heart Association. To say it was a successful marketing effort would be an understatement, given that the concept originated in the 1960s and has stayed relevant for decades.
Is it true that 10,000 steps per day is the magic number for good health?
Given that the 10,000-step rule originated as a marketing campaign in the 1960s, advice for daily steps is, according to Seema Sarin, MD, director of lifestyle medicine at EHE Health, a reasonable issue.
The truth is that everyone’s exercise requirements are unique and should be determined by a variety of criteria. Your target will fluctuate depending on your exercise goals. If you’re attempting to get in shape or lose weight, your step goal will most likely be significantly greater than if you’re merely trying to maintain a healthy level of activity.
To note, inactive people take roughly 5,000 steps per day on average. Active people walk anywhere from 7,500 to 10,000 steps every day, and very active people can easily exceed 12,500 steps per day.
How to Set Your Own Step Goal
Most trainers recommend starting with where you are today and measuring how many steps you naturally take on a typical day to develop your own movement objectives. In other words, evaluate your present number of steps. You can accomplish this with a wearable fitness tracker or your smartphone, which usually has a pedometer built in. Once you’ve determined your starting position, the next step is to be patient with yourself and construct a realistic schedule for completing your daily steps target.
It’s also important to note that not all activities entail physical steps (for example, swimming, dusting, yoga, or playing cornhole in the backyard), yet the term “steps” in the sense of Hatano’s rule includes those activities as well.
There are helpful conversion tables available to assist you in translating non-step movements into steps that count toward your 10,000-step target—or whatever step goal you choose for yourself. Gardening, weight training, and riding a handbike are all examples of healthful activities. And you need to take credit for them.
Last but not least, pay attention to your body. When in doubt, consult a doctor to determine how much you should be moving based on your personal history. You don’t want to overcommit yourself and then be unable to be active at all.
Doing too much all of a sudden can leave you weary, exhausted, or even injured. It is fine to take some days off as needed. This will allow your body to acclimate to new levels of movement. It’s amazing how much stronger you feel or how much your endurance improves after a day or two off.
If you’re serious about getting your steps in, just walk some more
Walking may feel lethargic or unfit to dedicated exercisers. But it’s one of the finest methods to keep yourself limber by increasing your daily amount of steps. There are numerous health benefits to this sort of exercise, as well as numerous methods to incorporate short and long walks into your daily routine.
Try parking further away from the front of the grocery store than normal. March in place between Zoom meetings at home. Get off the metro a stop earlier and walk the additional leg home. Take the stairs instead of the escalator or take your dog for a slightly longer walk every day.
And don’t be fooled
Brisk walking satisfies the official workout recommendations. While the normal [recommended] for light-to-moderate intensity exercise is 150 minutes per week, performing 300 minutes of brisk walking per week will have equal outcomes. While that may appear to be an impossible figure to achieve on a weekly basis, when broken down, it’s really just 45 minutes of walking per day.
In terms of steps, where do these walking duration requirements land you? As it turns out, I was in a fantastic location.
Depending on the individual, an average walking rate ranges from 14 to 20 minutes per mile, with around 2,000 steps in a mile. We can see that a person walking at a brisk rate of 15 minutes per mile will complete three miles in a 45-minute walking session, which corresponds to approximately 6,000 steps.
Furthermore, being intentional with your steps provides you with a feeling of purpose, a boost of confidence, and a technique to combat stress. It provides us an excuse to get outside, get some fresh air, and have some alone time. Stress can kill you, and one of the best ways to de-stress is to get outside and away from screens.
To Conclude
Continue walking and keeping track of your progress toward an active, always-moving lifestyle. Keep the 10,000-step goal in mind as a general health objective to strive for—a reasonable gauge for checking in with yourself to ensure you’re being as active as your brain and body require each day.
Be flexible with yourself. There will be days when you absolutely exceed it (e.g., you moved houses and made a long trip to IKEA! ) and days when you take far fewer than 10K steps. That is life, and it is all about growth rather than perfection.