8963
Most of you have probably heard the number 10,000 related to a lot of things. Malcolm Gladwell postulated in his book Outliers that you needed to practice something for 10,000 hours to become a master in that field. This number has been widely disputed, but I think many would agree that at any task you attempt, practice helps make you better.
Another place you might have heard the number is in regards to walking. Many know that the American Heart Association recommends 10,000 steps per day to remain in good cardiovascular health. What many people probably don't realize is just how much walking this actually is! As reported by the American College of Sports Medicine, the average step length is about 2.6 feet.
That means that you need to walk just under 5 miles per day to hit the 10,000 step goal.
In order to start tracking this simply I started using an iPhone app called "Moves". You can find it here: https://www.moves-app.com/
Now I consider myself a healthy person. I am not overweight, and I exercise 5-7 days per week for at least 30 minutes. I also take many other steps to improve my health. As I have blogged about recently I decided to start using a standing desk at work. I am regularly chasing a 3 year old around and playing with him. I also make it a point at work to walk around as much as possible. Recently I started making an effort to take a lap around our building once every other hour or so when possible. Our "building" is not small as you can see here. See those tiny cars? Yeah I walk around the whole thing a couple times a day.
Now let's get back to that huge number at the top of the post. 8963. After using the Moves app for almost a month that was my BEST day. Yes my best. The caveat being of course that it is not tracking my steps when I am doing Beachbody workouts. But still, as active as I m I did not once hit the 10,000 step goal. It was a real wake up call for me. My average day is closer to the 4000-5000 range and many health professionals recognize <5000 as a danger point. Again the caveat is that I also add at least 30 minutes of strenuous exercise to my total each day.
The bottom line is that many of use don't even realize how healthy or unhealthy our daily activities may be. It sure was a wake up call to me to see these numbers so far. Now it's time to up my game!
That means that you need to walk just under 5 miles per day to hit the 10,000 step goal.
In order to start tracking this simply I started using an iPhone app called "Moves". You can find it here: https://www.moves-app.com/
Now I consider myself a healthy person. I am not overweight, and I exercise 5-7 days per week for at least 30 minutes. I also take many other steps to improve my health. As I have blogged about recently I decided to start using a standing desk at work. I am regularly chasing a 3 year old around and playing with him. I also make it a point at work to walk around as much as possible. Recently I started making an effort to take a lap around our building once every other hour or so when possible. Our "building" is not small as you can see here. See those tiny cars? Yeah I walk around the whole thing a couple times a day.
Now let's get back to that huge number at the top of the post. 8963. After using the Moves app for almost a month that was my BEST day. Yes my best. The caveat being of course that it is not tracking my steps when I am doing Beachbody workouts. But still, as active as I m I did not once hit the 10,000 step goal. It was a real wake up call for me. My average day is closer to the 4000-5000 range and many health professionals recognize <5000 as a danger point. Again the caveat is that I also add at least 30 minutes of strenuous exercise to my total each day.
The bottom line is that many of use don't even realize how healthy or unhealthy our daily activities may be. It sure was a wake up call to me to see these numbers so far. Now it's time to up my game!
