Walking 10,000 steps a day may not matter if you don’t do one thing, expert says
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In a world where most people sit down to work, walk and relax, daily step goals can be a simple and effective way to increase your activity levels. But you may not get all the rewards of walking 10,000 steps a day if you don’t consider another important factor: cadence AKA how many steps you take per minute.
If you want to enjoy the most benefits, walk at a pace of 100-plus steps per minute and Keeping a high number of daily steps is the way to go, according to walking expert Dr Elroy Aguiar. His team’s research, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that this cadence was a good indicator of moderate exercise.
This is important since “all research in this area suggests that most of the benefits [from walking] gather with moderate or high energy,” explains Dr. Aguiar.
Why is walking cadence important?
Walking at a pace of 100 steps per minute can help you get more health benefits than walking at a slower pace, and this depends on how hard your body is working. Walking faster will require more effort, so your heart rate needs to be faster to increase the supply of oxygen to your body and working muscles. As a result, the performance increases, and can be classified as “moderate exercise”.
This aligns with the physical activity guidelines shared by the World Health Organization (and outlined by the NHS) which provide a weekly total of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise, 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity, or a similar combination. the latter.
Fortunately, Dr. Aguiar says that walking at a pace of 100 steps per minute should not be too much distance for most people.
“To put it in context, if most people were walking down the street, they would have a cadence of about 110 to 115 steps per minute, so 100 is a very achievable number,” he says.
If you wanted to power up your legs, you could walk at about 130 steps per minute. If you go within that range or a little bit above, you can change gears and get the most out of the job you’re doing.”
How many steps do you need to walk in a day?
Dr Aguiar says the research is “a little less clear” about the importance of physical activity (the number of steps you take per day) when it’s done without getting too high.
Although many studies emphasize the benefits of walking a certain number of steps per day, “the same studies have shown that the volume is not important unless you also do it with high intensity,” he explains.
To cover all the bases, Dr. Aguiar recommends maintaining a high daily volume and brisk walking pace. And he says you don’t need to walk 10,000 steps a day to get the many health benefits it offers.
“Research suggests around 7,000 to 8,000 steps per day depending on the volume, and part of it should include 20 to 30 minutes of walking with 100 steps of 130 per minute or faster,” says Dr Aguiar. “That would be the most effective combination to get the volume and power benefits.”
Although he added, “there is no upper limit to whether walking is good or bad for you – the more steps you get, the better”.
Benefits of walking
For a free operation with a low barrier to entry, mobility offers an impressive number of benefits.
Dr Aguiar says: “It is possible that a person who starts a sedentary lifestyle, without exercise, can improve their heart or improve their physical fitness by walking.”
“This is especially true if they go from the moderate to the intense side of things – they go in a way that starts to make you short of breath, make you agitated and cause a little sweat.”
“If you walk 130 steps per minute, which is about 5mph, you really start to walk faster. You get your heart rate up, you increase your oxygen consumption, and that will help you improve physical activity.
“The research is very clear on this – people who are physically fit have a lower risk of developing chronic disease than people who are not physically fit.”
The World Health Organization’s exercise guidelines talk a lot about the benefits of physical activity but still help to reinforce the benefits of walking. Regular exercise, it says, can lead to “important physical and mental health benefits” such as preventing chronic disease, reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety and improving overall health, among other things. and many more.
That’s why, if you’re looking for low-impact exercise to boost your health and performance levels, daily walking should be your first port of call – don’t drag your heels.
Read more: I walked 10,000 steps with a heavy backpack every day for a week – here’s why
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