Why are we told to aim for the golden 10000 steps a day?
Well the answer is there is no basis for this.
Just this week, I had a client who had started a health kick, which is great!
But they went from doing very little exercise to doing some form of fitness on a daily basis, including quick walks to reach 10,000 steps a day.
Two weeks after starting this fitness regime, what happens? They pull their calf muscle.
They’ve gone from doing around 2-3,000 steps a day to 10,000 in a short period of time, and they haven’t given their body a chance to adjust.
We’ve all heard it and been told that it’s what we should be aiming for, but why is 10,000 steps the magic number?
It’s a nice, round number, but the reality is there is absolutely no reason for it to be your target over any other number.
Your daily step count should be totally individualised based on many factors.
The biggest things I would base this on are:
- What is your current step count?
- Do you have any injuries that will stop you from progressing your current step count?
For example, if I’m working with someone who is currently doing 3,000 steps a day and they’re in pain doing it, trying to get them to 10,000 isn’t going to be the most sensible way of getting them to do more exercise.
We’d probably opt for something they can tolerate better, like swimming or biking initially.
Equally, if someone is doing 15,000 steps a day and they’re tolerating it well, then why would we bring them down to the magic 10,000?
Of course, walking is a great way to exercise, lose weight, and improve physical and mental health, but there are other ways you can achieve all these things.
When I’m working with people who want to increase their exercise, we develop a program that they:
- Enjoy
- Can stick to
- Aren’t likely to get injured doing
And if walking 10,000 steps a day ticks these boxes, then great! But if not, then we find something else.
If you’re not currently doing 10,000 steps a day, this is certainly a nice goal to aim for, but consider all the factors.
If you want to help with anything injury related then feel free to Book In and we can get you on the journey to becoming pain free again.
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