When it comes to getting your steps in, there is more and more research coming out giving more practical and specific guidelines. You’ve probably seen the guideline of hitting 10,000 steps per day. While that’s a great goal, it’s often unachievable depending on your level of fitness and time constraints. (Plus, it’s also a kind of made up number that was created as part of a marketing campaign in the 60s. It’s not as though 10,0000 steps per day gives a specific benefit that other amounts of steps don’t.) But just because you can’t hit 10,000 steps per day, doesn’t mean you can’t get the benefits of increased movement and activity. You just need to make sure you’re getting enough, as there is a minimum effective dose to receive the countless benefits:
- Improved stress management
- Weight and body composition management
- Improved quality of sleep
- Better cognitive function and brain health
- Better heart and cardiovascular health
- Prevention of countless diseases
- And following the body’s golden rule of “move it or lose it”, movement is incredibly preventative for aches and pains, including hips, knees and low back.
Here’s 2 targets for you to make sure you’re getting enough steps in, without having to hit 10,000 per day.
4500 STEPS PER DAY
At 4500 steps per day there is a strong association with cognitive and mental health, and anything below that is associated with a decline in cognitive and mental health, and diseases such as hypertension. You can think of 4500 steps per day as a “floor” that you want to be above, on average, every day.
7500 STEPS PER DAY
When you bump that up to 7500 steps per day you really get the maximum benefit. Fitness improves, bodyfat levels decrease, energy levels and sleep improve, and there is an overall association with greater health and less disease. If there was a pill that would give all the same benefits, it would be the most prescribed medication on the planet. You can think of 7500 as the ideal. Of course there is nothing wrong with getting more than 7500 steps per day. After all, movement is medicine. But as the weather gets cooler, the sun sets earlier, and it’s the time we want to curl up in front of the fireplace and read a good book, it’s important to focus on hitting that sweet spot of 4500-7500 steps per day (on average) to make sure you stay healthy this winter and don’t have to “get fit again” in the spring.
