The 10,000 steps a day idea has become one of the popular health mantras of the past decade, with the emergence of wearable devices fuelling a step counting obsession. Some say we should actually be asking: how many steps is too few?
However while the World Health Organisation, the American Heart Association and many others have all adopted the 10,000 steps a day goal, did you know that the number is actually completely arbitrary? The reality is that it originated in a Japanese boardroom in the 1960s. Few people realise but the company Yamasa simply dreamt up the figure as a way of promoting the world’s first step counter ahead of the Tokyo 1964 Olympics.
Whilst nobody today is saying that aiming for 10,000 daily steps is a bad idea, actual research suggests that between 6,000 and 8,000 steps per day might be the sweet spot for avoiding chronic illness. A new study published by scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health has found that if you currently live a fairly sedentary life, even just adding an extra 500 steps a day will bring significant health benefits.
“People obsess over how many steps are enough but we should be asking how many steps are too few,” says Catrine Tudor-Locke, a professor and physical activity researcher at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who has studied the 10,000 steps a day phenomenon. “We should get people to stop taking less than 5,000 steps a day, but there seems to be an obsession with the higher number, while it’s more important from a public health point of view to just get people off the couch and out the door.”