Why You Should Be Walking 10,000 Steps per Day
Learn how simple daily activity can transform you mentally and physically
Hello friends, and welcome to another issue of The Athlete Spot™ Weekly.
This week I want to share with you why walking 10,000 steps per day is crucial, and how my life has changed since I started implementing more walking in the last 30 days.
Do the Hard Things, Don’t Be a B****!
- Famous Anonymous.
By now you have heard it everywhere from radio adds, to instagram adds and famous tweets.
“Walk 10,000 steps a day for health benefits”
BUT…
Why walk when you could run?
Why 10,000 steps?
Why everyday?
The answer is, simple.
Walking is far easier than running.
It’s easier on your knees, your hips, your low back and neck. Overall it is easier on your joints and muscles.
It’s also easy to get 10,000 steps everyday.
But did you know that the average American logs between 3,000 and 4,500 steps a day?
I was part of that statistic just about a month ago, walking on average 5,333 steps per day. (Recorded and averaged on my Garmin watch.)
Slightly higher than average, but not impressive. This meant I was roughly walking about 2.5 - 3 miles from 5 am to 9 pm.
If we do the math, that’s 2.5 miles in 16 hours, or 0.15 of a mile every hour!
Just for reference, soft-shelled turtles (the fastest turtle) can cover 3 miles in one hour…
At first I was ashamed about this numbers! I know students and colleagues, whose jobs require less activity, and are still logging 12,000 - 15,000 steps a day.
At first, it was all about simply just upping my step game.
For the first week, I simply tried to walk more steps than the last day. After the first week, I averaged a disappointing 6,129 steps per day. Better, but not good enough.
The second week I added 500 steps a day. After the second week, my average jumped to 7,000 steps a day. I kept this pace for the third and fourth week.
At the end of my 4th week, I was averaging 10,120 steps a day!
It’s been a week since I have continuously averaged over 10K steps a day, and I have NEVER felt better!
I had never been a fan of simply walking. I didn’t see the point in it, but after doing it for 5 weeks there’s a few lessons I have learned along the way, and there’s some research backing every single one of them.
Here they are:
Support fat-loss
It’s no secret that I have personally been following a fat-loss nutrition plan. I covered this in my last newsletter. My goal is to be back under 200lbs by the end of the summer.
However, being in a caloric deficit slows down your recovery between training sessions. This is where smart training and being able to create a smart energy deficit comes into play.
Walking is an easy way to increase your caloric burn without your body needing additional time to recover. It’s low impact, easy on the joints and muscles, and it aids in increasing your energy deficit through the day, without reducing your ability to recover.
You can walk more throughout the day and not feel as beat up after doing high intensity interval training session. You know the feeling.
Adding walking throughout my day, has definitely been an aid in my fat loss journey by increasing my overall activity level and reducing a lot of impact on my joints.
Improved Joint Health
When you get moving, regardless of the activity, your body releases synovial fluid at the joints. This acts like oil, lubricating your joints and keeping them moving smoothly.
It doesn’t mean that if you have bony changes, like arthritis, it will improve your bone structure. It won’t. What it will do is improve the range of motion of the joint, which is followed by an analgesic effect that may last a few hours or days, helping reduce joint pain.
Taking advantage of this may help you stay more active and help you manage your weight with joint friendly activities.
Mental Clarity
If you don’t’ know, engaging in any form of physical activity (walking, running, lifting, etc.) triggers the release of feel-good chemicals, also known as endorphins.
These chemicals aid in boosting your mood and aid in reducing stress and anxiety.
Walking for 10 minutes a day three times a day, has had a profound impact in my ability to solve problems in my day to day life.
Improved Recovery
There’s quite a bit of research that has been published on the positive effects of leisure walking for recovery after intense exercise or strength training.
Leisure walking can support recovery and promote blood flow to muscles, helping you prevent muscle stiffness and allow your body to recover faster.
Active recovery should be though more of a leisure workout. It may include walking at a leisure pace, walking the dog, or going to the park with your kids amongst other activities that do not elicit a tremendous spike in your heart rate.
Overall, active recovery helps improve the overall process by stimulating movement, and blood flow to the tissues.
The bottom line is, in order to improve our mental and physical health, we need to move more. Walking is the easiest type of exercise that everyone can participate in.
Ready to go from 4000 steps to 10,000 steps a day?
Here’s my day to day for the last month:
Week 1:
Day 1: aim for 5000 steps
Day 2: aim for 5500 steps
Day 3: aim for 6000 steps
Day 4: aim for 6500 steps
Day 5: aim for 7000 steps
Day 6: aim for 7500 steps
Day 7: aim for 8000 steps
Week 2: aim for: walking
Day 1: 8000 steps
Day 2: 8000 steps
Day 3: 8500 steps
Day 4: 8500 steps
Day 5: 9000 steps
Day 6: 9000 steps
Day 7: 9500 steps
Week 3 - walking/jogging was involved
Day 1: 9000 steps
Day 2: 9500 steps
Day 3: 9500 steps
Day 4: 10000 steps
Day 5: 10000 steps
Day 6: 10,500 steps
Day 7: 10,500 steps
Week 4 - walking, jogging and running were involved:
Day 1: 10,000 steps
Day 2: 10,000 steps
Day 3: 10,000 steps
Day 4: 11,000 steps
Day 5: 11,000 steps
Day 6: 10,000 steps
Day 7: 10,000 steps
Week 5 - Repeat week 4.
I am currently running 3x a week for 30-45 minutes in the morning and accumulating ~5,000 steps before 6am. This allows me to constantly reach ~10,000 steps every day, and I am loving how I feel.
How long have you been walking 10,000 steps a day? What have you noticed since you started?
For now, that is all.
Thank you for taking the time to read this week’s The Athlete Spot™ Weekly.
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