10,000 Steps a Day: What Are The Benefits?

10,000 Steps a Day: What Are The Benefits?

The average American walks 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, which is roughly 1.5 to 2 miles. If you already have an active lifestyle or work standing up, you are on your way. But what if you are sedentary with a desk job? You’re probably not going to get anyway near the 10,000 steps a day by walking to the water fountain, meeting room, and restroom.

The Benefits of 10,000 Steps

Exercise reduces your risk of:

• • Cardiovascular disease
  • Dementia
  • Depression
  • Diabetes
  • High blood pressure
  • Mild Cognitive Impairment
  • Osteoporosis
  • Overweight

How Else Can 10,000 Steps a Day Support Your Health?

1. Feeling down? The good news is that a study of 30 participants who walked 10,000 steps, 5 days a week for 12 weeks had significantly lower anxiety, depression, anger, fatigue, confusion and mood distress compared to before.³

2. When your body is stressed, the hormone cortisol is elevated. If you’re sedentary, those hormones will continue to circulate and cause damage to your body. Vigorous exercise, however, burns off those hormones. Exercise also releases endorphins and the neurotransmitter serotonin, the body’s natural pain relievers.

3. In a report recently published in researchers at the University of Maryland School of Public Health found that exercise makes the brain more fit and improves many aspects of people’s thinking.¹ The same researchers found in previous research that regular exercise over time increases the volume of the hippocampus, a key part of the brain’s memory networks.

4. Another recent study published in Frontiers in Physiology (April 2019) evaluated a former study of overweight individuals who had elevated blood glucose and lipids levels and were at risk for cardiovascular disease over a ten-year period. The researchers at Duke University discovered that 10 years later, the same participants who had engaged in moderate exercise such as walking for eight months, still showed positive result. The people who had walked 10 years ago at least three times a week still had healthier blood pressures and blood glucose levels than they had before, even if they didn’t exercise regularly now.²

5. Many studies have shown there is a direct positive effect of weight-bearing exercise such as walking on reducing risk and decline in people with osteoporosis.

10 Tips To Get You Going

• • Ask a neighbor to join you. It’s easier to stick to a routine when you have a set time and a buddy to accompany you.

• • Buy a new pair of walking shoes that are fitted by a professional. It will give a spring to your step and provide added comfort.

• • Get a new water bottle that conveniently fits in your pocket or small pack, and remember to hydrate.

• • Wear ear buds and listen to your favorite upbeat tunes.

• • Park further away from your destination.

• • Ignore the elevator and escalator. Walk up the stairs instead.

• • Plan a hike with family or friends.

• • Instead of using in-house email, hand deliver messages to your office mates.

• • Schedule a lunchtime walk and talk with colleagues. Or, go for a solo walk during your lunch break.

• • Adopt a pet dog. If you don’t want a full-time companion, volunteer to walk dogs at the animal shelter.

For Added Bone Support

Weight bearing exercise is crucial to maintaining healthy bones and warding off osteoporosis. Unfortunately, many of us have less than perfect diets and inflammatory foods such as sugars, caffeine and sodas can rob our skeletons of calcium. For added insurance of strong, healthy bones, EffiHealth offers Barefoot Coral Calcium Complete, a natural source of 72 essential trace minerals, and vitamins D3, A,C,E and B complex. Obviously, the goal of 10000 steps a day is very beneficial!