Whether you’re obsessed with the gym, enjoy working out every so often or consider yourself an exercise beginner, it’s likely that you’re familiar with the notion that we should all be trying to walk 10,000 steps a day.

It’s a number that has long been equated with good health and wellbeing – so much so that it’s ingrained in the software of many popular fitness trackers. 

But what is it about that 10,000 figure that has made such a big mark? The benefits of walking for mental and physical health are certainly real, so it’s no wonder that many of us are still pacing around parks on our lunch breaks or running up and down stairs before bedtime just to feel the satisfying vibration of our trackers celebrating that 10,000th step. But is that really the number we need to be aiming for? 

According to Shana Minei Spence, a nutritionist from Brooklyn, that’s not the case. Indeed, as she explains in a video uploaded to her TikTok, the history of the 10,000 step goal isn’t necessary based in science. 

In fact, the recommendations for 10,000 steps a day is actually a marketing ploy that dates back to a Japanese pedometer brand in the 1960s. The device, called manpo-kei, translates to 10,000 step meter. Fifty years later, we’re all still wedded to it. 

Spence says: “We have taken that number and promoted it as the ultimate marker of health,” before going on to suggest that if you can’t hit that, perhaps it’s because you don’t like walking or physically can’t do such a large volume. If your goal is to be less sedentary, then trying to achieve an arbitrary number isn’t necessarily the best way to go about it.

Now, Spence admits that even she gets excited on the days when she does do 10,000 steps, and that’s the same with a lot of us. Having such an ambitious goal can be a great thing, especially now that more people than ever are hybrid working. 

In fact, working from home part of the week means that we’re running the risk of missing out on ‘incidental steps’, says walking expert Marie Murphy. She’s the leader of the scientific body reviewing the UK’s adult physical activity guidelines. 

“Even if you’re not an active commuter, you still normally walk to your car, to the station, to your office building,” she tells Stylist.

“The difference between working from home and being in a normal office setting is big; you’d previously be getting up to talk to people and even the toilets are further away than they are in your house. These ‘incidental’ steps help to break up sedentary lifestyles.”

While I’m not wedded to a tracker, I do use an app to loosely check if I’ve been moving enough throughout the day. When I work in the office, I go beyond 10,000 steps without a problem. I roll out of bed and walk straight to the gym, where I complete a strength workout before commuting to work. My days are spent running up and down stairs in the office and popping out to grab some lunch, before trudging 20 minutes home from the Tube station in the evening. 

When I work from home, however, I’m less active – and that fact has made me more aware of my movement than ever. But is the need to clock in a minimum step count per day misguided? Research by the University of Massachusetts suggests it might be. Scientists found that while walking at least 7,000 steps a day reduced middle-aged people’s risk of premature death by 50-70%, walking more than 10,000 steps per day didn’t have any extra benefits.

This isn’t the first paper to find that 10,000 isn’t necessarily the best number. Harvard Medical School studies have found that women who averaged approximately 4,400 steps a day had a significantly lower mortality rate than those who averaged approximately 2,700 steps a day. The more steps the women did, the lower the mortality rate – but only until they hit 7,500 steps. At this point, the health benefits levelled out. So if the extra two or three thousand steps don’t help, why are we so obsessed with them? 

However, the thing that gets lost in the step count glorification is that the UK doesn’t actually have guidelines on how many steps we should be doing a day. Rather, the advice is that we get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity over the course of the week. 

Of course, quantity of movement and your step count are correlated: “Evidence shows that people who do 10,000 steps generally tend to meet the guidelines of 150 minutes of exercise,” Murphy explains. “But it’s because of the fact that in order to get that many steps in, people will have had to have added in a brisk walk or a run, or some sort of formal activity into their day.” 

It’s raising the heart rate, rather than stepping, that really counts. In 2018, Public Health England issued advice for people to “focus on brisk walking, not just 10,000 steps, to improve health”, advising that people start with 10 minutes of focused activity a day. 

So, no, it isn’t the end of the world if the only steps you’re losing out on are the ones you take from your front door to your car – as long as you’re getting in some heart-rate-rising steps, and follow up with some exercise in the home.

“The obsession with hitting 10,000 steps is misguided, especially in the current environment,” Murphy adds. “It’s better to focus on replacing the current step deficit with something structured, like a cardio workout, gardening, playing football with your kids, or anything that will get you to the moderate-intensity target.” 

So that’s what I’ve done. Rather than forcing myself to get my steps in, I’ve added an extra cardio session on the end of my workouts after my upper body circuits or lower body supersets. It means I’m getting my heart beating faster in order to compensate for a lack of other movement, and it beats going for a stress walk around the block after a long day of work. But one thing I’m definitely not doing anymore? Pacing my garden. 

Up for a challenge this summer? We’d love you to join us as we head outdoors for a series of scenic half-marathon charity hikes. Bring your friends on one of our Strong Women Treks for a day of walking, fresh air and countryside adventure. Book your tickets here.

Images: Getty