Posted on 05/30/2019 6:49:17 AM PDT by BenLurkin
There's nothing magical about the number 10,000.
In fact, the idea of walking at least 10,000 steps a day for health goes back decades to a marketing campaign launched in Japan to promote a pedometer. And, in subsequent years, it was adopted in the U.S. as a goal to promote good health. It's often the default setting on fitness trackers, but what's it really based on?
"The original basis of the number was not scientifically determined," says researcher I-Min Lee of Brigham and Women's Hospital.
She was curious to know how many steps you need to take a day to maintain good health and live a long life, so she and her colleagues designed a study that included about 17,000 older women. Their average age was 72. The women all agreed to clip on wearable devices to track their steps as they went about their day-to-day activities.
It turns out that women who took about 4,000 steps per day got a boost in longevity, compared with women who took fewer steps. "It was sort of surprising," Lee says.
In fact, women who took 4,400 steps per day, on average, were about 40 percent less likely to die during the follow-up period of about four years compared with women who took 2,700 steps. The findings were published Wednesday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Another surprise: The benefits of walking maxed out at about 7,500 steps. In other words, women who walked more than 7,500 steps per day saw no additional boost in longevity.
"I love this study. I think it's really good news for women who may not be particularly active," says Kathleen Janz, who studies how physical activity influences health at the University of Iowa. She was not involved in this study.
Janz, who helped shape the new federal exercise recommendations released last November, says the message that comes from this study is that older women can benefit from just light walking.
"They didn't need to go the gym or invest in a personal trainer or exercise equipment," she says. All they had to do was walk.
And Janz says that's encouraging.
"To me, this study suggests there's more benefit to light activity than we were previously thinking there might be," she says.
Of course, the researchers point out, they would like to know much more about how walking may affect other health parameters such as quality of life and memory and cognitive function. It's possible that walking a greater number of steps each day could influence these outcomes.
Another thing Janz notes is that this study only measures walking. It didn't measure things that many of us do that don't require steps, things like gardening, swimming or biking. And it's safe to assume some women in the study were doing these other things that can influence health as well.
And Janz says to remember the federal exercise guidelines call for 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity, which includes all kinds of daily movement, not just steps.
So, if 10,000 steps has been feeling out of reach to you, it may be time reset those factory settings on your fitness tracker. Instead, try to hit at least 4,400 a day, along with daily activities that you enjoy. And stick to it.
This may be an Urban Legend, but when the outfit I worked for years ago was installing an Automatic Storage and Retrieval System, the reps told this one.
At General Motors (or some BIG car manufacturer), the ASRS people ran into automobile blueprints where the car was split down the middle, with positive numbers on the right side and negatives on the left. They asked the auto engineers why and got the standard "it always been done like that" answer.
It took some digging, but they said that they found a drawing where the division started with the horse and cart. The horse was negative, the cart was positive with the dividing line being the beginning of the cart.
“That’s a lot of trips from the LazyBoy to the kitchen....”
My ice-maker is within arm’s reach!
Enough exercise to keep the blood flowing and the joints moving is great for older folks...trying to do it like when you were 25 or 45 or 60 can be detrimental.
My 69 year old wife was trying to do some serious training on the treadmill and had to stop every mile or so to catch her breath...I finally convinced her to slow to a pace (and elevation) that allowed her to do at least 3 miles w/o being worn out and she has lots more energy these days...
I keep my heart rate around 120 to 130 (supposedly between endurance and athletic training for my 66 years) instead of the 140-160 I was doing and have started skipping 2 days between weight training and I also have more energy.
If you subtract the time spent walking from the longevity gained, I’ll bet it comes up a loss. Mindlessly walking is not my idea of living, so I’ll skip it, thanks.
Between football, track, delivering mail, the military, walking to work, jogging into my 70’s, etc I’ve probably trod the circumference of the globe. All it got me is a collapsed arch, an ankle foot orthoses and a handicapped parking placard.
I’m 58 and do some crossfit type classes for an hour. I try to go at least twice a week. Drenched with sweat at the end of each class. Starting to walk around the block with the wife for some extra movement.
:)
I’m a hostess in a Las Vegas buffet. I average about 15,000 steps a day! Yesterday after walking the dog and work, over 20,000.
That’s great!
Starboard side odd numbers. Port side even numbers. So there:)
“I walked 10 miles to school - uphill - both ways” - Bill Cosby
I bought my first HR monitor in the late 80’s and it was a tremendous motivational tool for me. I read all of the fitness literature I could get my hands on at the time as well. In my best shape I had a resting heart rate of 42bpm. I worked for a city at the time and they would provide monthly BP checks for staff as part of our wellness program. The paramedics would provide the service and I the first couple of times I went I remember them questioning their equipment after I sat in the chair.
But then I got fat and lazy for several years with short moments of fitness training scattered in between. Now I’m 59 and have running 3 miles/day on the elliptical (40 minutes)at the gym every morning. I keep telling myself I need to get a Fitbit so I can monitor my resting HR so I can check my cardio health gain. I also don’t really trust the monitors that are built into the equipment.
This is an app you can get for your phone. Reminds you to move when you have a sedentary desk job.
FitTime5
Get it at the app store. I think its free.
The secret to longevity - remain breathing.
Hmmm.
2.5 hours a week....130 hours a year... 5.4 days per year....1 year per 70 years.
I bet it comes out a positive.
Yes, appears to be another faulty cause and effect test. I've never seen the details of the test.
Also, wouldn't faster steps be of more value than little shuffling ones? Faster walking better than slower walking?
It takes me an hour to walk three miles.
That’s fifteen days a year. How much longevity
can I expect for that? More than two weeks a year?
Beats me.
My question is, does the person who takes 2 hours to do this get the same benefit that a person can do it in 1 hour?
I’m a big guy (6’2”) with long legs. 30” would be a fairly long stride for me.
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