Forget 10,000 Steps A Day – This Is The Number To Focus On

How many steps did you take today?

Most of us have faced that question at some point in our lives, and most of us use our step count as a metric to measure how active we are. For years we’ve been told that getting at least 10,000 steps is important to maintaining our health, but how was that number determined and is it really accurate?

That’s us – Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson, who run HuffPost’s “Am I Wrong?” podcast – chat with Heather Milton, a physical therapist at NYU Langone Health New York, when she stopped by our studio to give us tips and tricks for a better workout.

“We always hear about 10,000 steps, and I actually read that number based on this pedometer made in Japan. [in the 1960′s],” said Michelson. “The [Japanese character] for 10,000 it looks like a walker, so… it became famous just for that.”

Although that number was not based on medical or scientific research, it has been the goal of our daily activities for decades.

“There were recent articles that were looked at [10,000 steps] a day, and how that relates to 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a day,” Milton told us. “The idea is whether you get the right strength for that [10,000-step] walk, and get the CDC and ACSM’s recommended amount of physical activity per day, which equates to about 30 minutes of moderate exercise.

However, not all measures are created equal.

“When you count the stairs, does it mean that I got up and went to fetch water and came back? That is probably not a moderate force,” he said.

That is why Milton stressed that in order to get the most out of our travels, our pace should be fast enough to prevent us from being able to converse easily while doing so, which he called “the linguistic experiment. ”

“If you and I were trying to have a conversation, would you be able to only answer my questions with ‘yes’ or ‘no’? Or should we be talking like this?” he asked. “There is a measure or a strong measure that will help you increase your health, and if we look at heart rate levels, [that’s] about 60… 64 to 76 technically… percent of your maximum heart rate. That area is your moderate energy area. ”

In addition to strength, different measures may give different results based on other factors, such as age. A 2019 study involving 16,741 women aged 62 to 101 found that “4,400 steps per day was associated with a 41% reduction in mortality compared to walking 2,700 steps per day, [and walking] About 7,500 steps were associated with a 65% reduction. Another study showed a gradual reduction in the risk of death in people under the age of 60 when they get 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day.

Since there are so many things to consider when trying to use a step count to determine our fitness, Milton suggested that we stop focusing so much on our steps, instead , let’s look at a different number: 30.

Not only is 30 the number of minutes of moderate exercise we want to do every day, it’s also the maximum number of minutes we should allow ourselves to sit or sit at any given time. during the day.

“Sedentary time is another health factor,” he said.

Inactivity can contribute to many medical conditions, including obesity, high blood pressure, some cancers and mental health problems, so the more sedentary we are, the better our health and well-being. our beauty can improve.

“A great place to hang out [is moving] every 30 minutes,” said Milton. If you walk, your steps add to that [and that’s] to help your health from a different place. ”

That’s why he likes to use measures as “a simple tool – an objective measure of what [my client] I did something or I didn’t do it that day.”

“So, for the general public, if you have a Fitbit or another device that counts your steps, you can see how low they are,” he said. Then you can set goals to increase it over time.

If we see a small number of days at the end, that can indicate that we have sat or sat for a long time of the day.

“10,000 [steps] it may not be what you want to post [your goal to],” said Milton. “It might be to increase it by 200 [steps]. Then you can add more slowly over time, so you get more and more effective time. It may not be formal exercise, but it is physical exercise. And that can help with your metabolism and overall health. ”

The Mayo Clinic notes that we can also reduce sitting time by finding ways to walk while working, such as going for a walk with colleagues instead of sitting during meetings, using standing desk (or working at a counter) for parts of the day, or standing for a while while doing an activity we used to do while sitting, such as talking on the phone or watching TV .

During our interview with Milton we also learned why we might be warming up all wrong (and how to do it better), the truth about space training , and many more. So listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.

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