Coach Kevin digs into the '10,000 steps a day' rule. If you have been curious as to the actual science behind this popular fitness mantra, tune in to learn that and better strategies for optimal health.
Step beyond the '10,000 steps a day' norm. In this episode, we uncover the marketing origins of this popular health tip, challenge its scientific validity, and most importantly, provide you with varied, realistic and effective fitness objectives that could enhance your personal health journey.
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Kevin Don. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hi and welcome back to get fit guy. This is coach Kevin Don. This week, I’m going to start with a modus ponens I made for you to illustrate today’s argument. A modus ponens being a way, in propositional logic, that we can infer an argument. It starts with premises and leads to a conclusion.
10,000 steps a day is the right number for health
I walk 10,000 steps a day
Therefore
I am healthy
As far as an argument goes, this is how people are operating. Where they go out and splash the cash on a Fitbit, Whoop band, Apple Watch, Garmin or whatever other brand of wearable tracker and go get their 10,000 steps a day. Once you are hitting that benchmark, you’re good.
But, as an argument, this is actually invalid, because for an argument to be valid in formal logic, the premises are true and therefore lead to a conclusion which is true. There are many people out there doing 10,000 steps a day (or more) who are unhealthy. Which means that one of the premises is false. If you are wearing a tracker, you can see how many steps you have made, so the second premise, “I walk 10,000 steps a day” is true. So, it has to be that the first premise (10,000 steps a day is the right number for health) is, in fact, false. False premises lead to false conclusions and make for invalid arguments. Damn, I love propositional logic.
So, if this premise is false and the 10,000 steps a day argument is invalid… how on earth did it come to be such a widely held belief? Well, like many of the things we hold so dear, it was a result of viral marketing and not based in any science whatsoever. In 1964, the Olympics were held in Tokyo. As a result, there was a big push for awareness around fitness and at the time, Japan was beginning to see an obesity problem. At the same time, one of the first wearable devices, a waist worn pedometer was introduced in Japan. The idea being that walking was something most people could do, you didn’t need any equipment like a barbell and it could be started without any coaching or training. In addition, for those cunning marketing people, the Japanese character for the number 10,000 resembles a person walking. And so the concept of ‘Manpo-kei’ was born, which literally means, “10,000 steps”. This idea then spread from Japan to the rest of the world.
So, marketing aside, is there any science behind this totally arbitrary number? Well, one study from the University of Sydney showed that 9800 steps a day reduced the risk of dementia by 50% and just 3800 steps a day reduced the same risk by 25%. Another study, by the University of Ghent, in Belgium showed improvements in obesity and diabetes risk in the 866 participants. However, in a follow up study, only half of the participants were still actively walking and of those participants, the average step count had fallen to 4000. Reasons cited included theses of social isolation when walking, compared to other activities.
For me personally, the problem with 10,000 steps isn’t the arbitrary number, it’s the effort. I think it’s very easy to see that 10,000 steps of walking the face of Kilimanjaro is a lot more difficult than 10,000 steps across a day walking from the sofa to the refrigerator. So, I would rather people think about METs.
MET stands for the Metabolic Equivalent of Task. The baseline of 1 MET is total rest. So, reading a book might be 1.3 METs and jumping rope 11 METs. We can see the amount of energy used in jumping rope (again, depending on how fast) is 11 times that of sitting doing nothing. The same goes for walking your 10,000 steps. The Metabolic output of walking on a flat treadmill at 3mph is always going to be less than walking outdoors, up an incline, at 5mph.
There are some online METs calculators, which won’t be truly accurate. However, it could still point you in the right direction if you really aren’t sure that training with more intensity will be better for you than training with less intensity. As always, yes there is nuance, please don’t send me hate mail that you can’t walk fast because you have a condition I couldn’t possibly know about. It’s a general podcast and “main character” syndrome is real.
In fact, talking about intensity, it is one of the hallmarks of, or at least discussed in CrossFit. They use the equation of force, distance and time. It’s fairly inarguable that if you move a larger load (use more force) across a larger distance in less time, then you will have worked harder than if you moved a smaller load less distance more slowly.
So, is 10,000 steps a good measure of anything? Well, maybe. If you are currently sedentary and walking is an easy way for you to get active without having to purchase a gym membership, hire a trainer and so on, then you should absolutely go for it. In fact, don’t even try 10,000 to begin with, it’s too many. Start small and increase the distance and then do the same distance and keep doing it faster.
But, bear in mind the SAID principle: Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. At some point, you will get used to your 10,000 steps and have maxed out the pace you can do it in. Then what? 11,000 steps? Also, bear in mind the human body was designed (or evolved depending on your theory of creation) to move in different ways. You can push, pull, bend, jump, squat, cart wheel, pirouette, carry, swing from a branch. If you only see your daily prescription as 10,000 steps, then you are only ever developing one single motor pattern and moving in one direction, since I doubt anyone is out there doing 10,000 steps sideways or backwards.
And this lack of movement variety is maybe long term, not healthy. The best approach is exposure to as many patterns and degrees of freedom in as many combinations as you can. This being done whilst thinking about how you can move more load, more distance, in less time. Walking also doesn’t address Wolff’s law on bone adaptation, which is that bone will increase density and strength in response to being loaded. There is no loading in walking, unless you choose to carry a load with you and there is very little impact. So, it’s a poor choice for addressing osteopenia, or age related loss of bone mineral density . And because there is no element of tension, it doesn’t address sarcopenia at all. Sarcopenia is loss of muscle mass. Have a look at some pics of long distance walking athletes. They aren’t exactly dripping with muscle mass. This being a side effect of long distance aerobic effort being somewhat catabolic, but also the fact that it simply doesn’t place muscles under enough load to force any kind of adaptation that would make them grow. This is certainly a problem for aging populations.
So, as always, the message is to think about and unpack what you are doing and the reasons why. 10,000 steps a day certainly has no real base in science. It was a marketing exercise around the 1964 Olympics and there are better choices for your health.
If you have a question or just want to say hi, then email me at getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com and you too can be featured on the show. Don’t forget to share the podcast with your friends!
Get-Fit Guy is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to the team at Quick and Dirty Tips Morgan Christianson, Holly Hutchings, Davina Tomlin, Kamryn Lacey, and our new Director of Podcasts, Brennan Goetschius. I’m your host, Kevin Don. If you have a question for me, leave me a voicemail at 510-353-3104 or send me an email at
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