Conditioning without trying : Walking 10,000 steps per day

by Scott Bird | June 18, 2007
Filed in Favourites , conditioning without trying

I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.

Walking is a greatly underrated form of exercise. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, increase your conditioning work or simply ‘stay in shape’; walking will help you on the way to your goal.

How much should I do?

The commonly cited daily minimum is 10,000 steps (about 5 miles), but really, any amount of walking is beneficial. Just try to do more than you did the previous day or week.

Note that this includes all walking through the day. You’d be surprised at how fast it adds up; particularly if you’re on your feet all day at work. The simplest way to measure this is with a pedometer (don’t worry, it’s a tiny, inconspicuous thing).

When should I do it?

Rather than trying to cover a large distance in a single session (and 5 miles can be quite a lot if you’re not used to it), break it down. The simplest way to do this is walk in situations when you’d usually choose another option.

Sometimes this isn’t feasible (especially if it’s raining), but keep the following in mind as potential leave-the-car-and-walk times :

• the journey to work
• the trip to the corner shop for milk, bread and newspapers
• stairs (instead of escalators)
• weekends (think ‘Sunday hike’, rather than ‘Sunday drive’ - even if you drive to your starting point)

Resources

If you’re just starting out on your fitness journey, it can be great to hear from others who have recently taken the plunge themselves. For information and inspiration, try these :

Former Fat Guy 10,000 Steps Forum

Rob has definitely turned his life around, and this forum takes you inside just one aspect of that - walking at least 10,000 steps daily.

The 10,000 Step Guide to Fitness

This BBC News article contains a very interesting look at the mechanism used by a typical pedometer. Rest assured, they’ve come down in size considerably since those photos were taken.

The Fat Man Walking

Steve Vaught drastically changed things following one simple idea - to walk across the US. That’s a long, long way. Wait ‘til you hear what he has in mind now.

"Sonnon is without doubt one of the top conditioning coaches in the US, the thinking man's coach. He is the hologram man. Try and hit him and he disappears."
- Pavel Tsatsouline

Are you ready for Tacfit?

This is the third article in this month’s series together with Run to Win’s Blaine Moore. For previous articles in this series please visit

Walking the Dog
Yard Work

or see :

Books
Injuries
Mind
Music
Rest
Timeless exercises
Training Equipment
Workout locations

Enjoy.

The Ultimate Sandbag.

I love sandbag training, and this is definitely the way to do it right.

Beautiful thing.

Discussion

I'd love to hear what you think. Pop over to the forums and share your opinion. See you there.

Comments