HEALTH

Do you really need to do 10,000 steps a day for good health?

16 May, 2023 . 0

Struggling to hit your 10,000 steps target? There’s no crime in ditching your smart watch and trying a different approach to staying fit.

Think smashing out 10,000 steps a day, carefully counted via your smart watch, is the only secret to staying in fine fettle?

Well, think again, pavement pounders (or those who just find walking a little dull).

While a daily stroll does tick quite a few wellbeing boxes, it’s far from the only answer to achieving glowing health.

In fact, many experts say you’re far better mixing up your daily efforts with a variety of activities and intensities.

A quick step back to Japan

How did the 10,000 steps concept come about anyway?

In the 1960s, amid the buzz of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a savvy Japanese company introduced the daily goal as a way to sell pedometers.

“There was no real evidence to support the target – it was just a marketing strategy,”

Club Forma fitness studio director and lead trainer Hayden Thin says.

“After that, lots of walking clubs actually popped up in Japan.”

Hayden says it wasn’t really until the turn of the century, when university researchers revisited the idea, that the concept gained traction worldwide.

Benefits of 10,000 steps a day

In 2022, one of the largest studies into the phenomenon found that 10,000 steps a day is the sweet spot for a lowered risk of dementia, heart disease, cancer and death.

That also happens to tie in nicely with Australia’s recommended physical activity guidelines, which suggest 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate intensity physical activity each week.

However, the above study also found that a faster stepping pace – think an enthusiastic Kel Knight-style power walk – could be just as important as the distance.

Potential downsides of aiming for 10K steps a day

While he recognises the benefits, Hayden says taking 10,000 steps daily won’t cover all fitness bases for most people.

“Walking is really quite low-level exercise,” he explains.

“Things like bone mineral density, joint stability, increased muscle mass, hormone balance are really only achieved with other types of exercise, such as progressive resistance training, or getting your heart rate up to a higher level.”
Feel Be Look health and style coach Elisha Casagrande is currently aiming for 10,000 steps a day herself, after noticing that she was becoming too sedentary while spending time editing podcasts.

But, Elisha says, there are some potential negatives to the idea.

“I work with a lot of women who become obsessed and addicted to checking their steps and doing ridiculous things just in order to hit that step goal,” she says.

“Like any sort of calorie tracking or exercise tracking, it can become obsessive.”

Not keen on walking? Try this instead

If walking is not your jam, or you just prefer more variety, Elisha says focusing on moving more throughout the day is key.

“Shifting your mindset and attention to simply living a more active lifestyle can actually burn a significantly higher amount of calories than your average workout,” she says.

Even if you do subscribe to the idea of taking 10,000 steps a day, she adds, there will likely be times when you don’t hit your goal.

For those days, Elisha suggests keeping things moving by cleaning the house, making your bed or working up a sweat while mowing the lawn.

And if you’d prefer to stay on the couch?

“If you don’t like exercise, build it into your day – it’s about behavioural changes,” Hayden says.

“There are certain things that we can do … somebody I know suggested they were going to buy a dog because they knew that the dog needs walking every day.”

Elisha says it’s about finding exercise you actually like doing.

“There’s no way in the world that I would recommend a client walk if that’s something that they don’t enjoy – that’s probably going to spike their cortisol levels because they’re going to hate it,” she adds.

More ways to keep moving:

Written by Larissa Ham.