Are you up for the 10,000 daily step challenge?

Have you found yourself moving less and sitting more this past year for one reason or another? Has your 10,000 daily step count gone basically to zero?

If you’re working from home, you might find yourself sitting in the same place all day only getting up to go to the bathroom and something to eat.

Does that sound about right?

Instead of walking around the office to moving about in the world, our feet went still as the world around us closed due to the pandemic.

Now that the weather is improving, join me on a 10,000 daily step challenge. The steps include everything from workouts, trips to the grocery store and steps around your house.

The goal is to be conscious about moving your body.

How to track your steps?

You can use any fitness watch or phone that tracks your steps, I am using an Apple Watch but you can use a Fitbit or an app on your phone that tracks your steps.

Do you really need 10,000 steps a day?

No. But movement is an important part to us as human beings.

Even though we don’t need to log that many steps a day, I have given myself the challenge for the month of March.

I’m two weeks in and it’s not easy every day. The weather has improved which makes it more pleasant to take a daily walk than just a couple of months ago. But there are still days that I have to push myself out the door.

Then why have you’ve heard we should walk 10,000 steps a day?

The goal of walking 10,000 steps a day originated in 1965 when a Japanese pedometer manufacturer created a device called Manpo-kei, which translates to “10,000-steps meter.” It wasn’t based on medical research.

Why am I taking the challenge?

The biggest reason is to force more movement into my life. For your average person, 10,000 steps is equivalent to walking about 5 miles.

Depending on your height and the length of your stride, it could actually be a little more or less.

Why would you might want to try getting 10,000 steps each day?

Reason 1: Win the battle against sitting

We sit a lot. We are sitting more than before because so much of the our lives have been altered and closed.

Reason 2: Health benefits

There are quite a few health benefits of moving more including lower blood pressure, lower chance of stroke and you might lose some weight.

Also, the Surgeon General recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity each week. That’s about 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days a week. If you’re getting 10,000 steps a day, chances are you’re hitting that out of the park.

Reason 3: Challenge yourself

Getting in 10,000 steps in a day is a lot harder than it seems. Just track your stats for one day and you’ll find you probably overestimated how many steps you’re actually taking.

And if you thought one day was tough, try doing it consistently for 30.
The 10,000 steps notion, in general, is about moving more consistently over the long haul.

How can you get more steps into your day?

There are a number of ways you can get more steps into your day even as we balance our lives and the pandemic.

• Park farther away from the entrance to the store, your job or wherever you are going.
• Family walks
• Walking your family pet
• Schedule a lunchtime walk around your neighborhood or office
• If you have younger children, play a scavenger hunt game in your neighborhood that would allow you to walk and find the answers.

How many steps a day do you get in?