Do you have an activity tracker? And at the end of the day, anxiously looking at your wrist, noticing that you haven’t achieved 10,000 steps, do you roam around your house and start waving your arms desperately to attack that magical target? It started when I first got the activity tracker, until my wife Claire tells me that I’m really annoying.
The 10,000 steps figure was originally the result of a Japanese marketing campaign in the 1960s. A company enthusiastic about whiplashing pedometers came up with a device called a “10,000 pedometer” called a “pedometer”.
Since then, there have been many attempts to reach science-based figures on the number of steps required to lead a long and healthy life. One of the recent attempts is Lancet March 2022. This was a meta-analysis of 15 international cohort studies of more than 50,000 people from four continents.
What they found was the number of steps required for their age. For adults over the age of 60 (I’m 65), the risk of premature death leveled off at 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day, and taking more steps had no additional benefit to longevity. Adults under the age of 60 had to aim for 8,000-10,000 steps.
This is a bit funny, but to be honest, I’ve thrown away Activity Monitor to make sure I can take a couple of active walks a day. This is because, as part of what’s popular, we’ve done a podcast about the benefits of active early morning walks. Only one You can find it in the series, BBC Sounds. This is also due to an experiment conducted with Professor Rob Copeland of Sheffield Hallam University.
The goal was to compare the benefits and ease of performing 10,000 steps with what is called “Active 10”. With Active 10, you don’t have to count your steps and aim for an active 10-minute walk three times a day.
We gathered a small group of volunteers, attached an activity monitor, and divided them into two groups. One group was asked to reach the 10,000-step goal and the other group was asked to run three active 10 sessions. This totals about 3,000 steps per day. We asked them to do this for a week. The group asked to perform 10,000 steps, but said the Active10 group was relatively easy.
Copeland analyzed data from volunteer monitors and found that the 10 active groups performed 30% more “moderate to active physical activity” than the 10,000-step group, despite shorter travel times. I understand. This is important because you get the most health benefits when you are active.
To get started with the 10 Active 10s of the day, visit the NHS website where you can download the free app. This is a good way to know how active you are walking and how to do more.
Read more from Dr. Michael Mosley:
