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T is for Ten Thousand Steps
10,000 Steps is aimed at getting more people to be more active. The simplest, cheapest and most effective way to access the benefits associated with a physically active lifestyle – and they are many – is to walk.
The project encourages people to walk 10,000 steps a day. Of course most people do not know what 10,000 steps is equal to, how long, or how far they should walk. 10,000 steps is roughly equivalent to seven or eight kilometres of walking. That may sound like a long walk, but the idea is not to do it all at once, but rather accumulate it over the course of your entire day. Walk and pick up the paper, walk a bit further from where you park the car, and take as many opportunities as you can during the day to acquire steps. Simply put, be a bit more self-propelled during the day. Depending on your habits, you may or may not need to add some extra walking before or after work to achieve the 10,000 step goal.
The normal person (no one is normal) take about 100 steps per minute. If we use this number we can calculate that 10,000 steps will take you one and forty minutes to complete. Again this doesn’t have to be done all at once, instead spread it over the entire day (which by the way still leaves you with over 22 hours of virtual inactivity!)
The project promotes the use of a pedometer to keep track of the steps that you complete. These are relatively inexpensive and are available through a number of retailers and more information through the 10,000 Steps Project Office. The pedometer is an effective means of establishing how much you do, and is a great little tool to start you on the road to increased activity.
Written by Professor Kerry Mummery
College of Health and Human Services
CQUniversity
