How Many Steps Do I Need To Take?
Are you familiar with the “10,000-steps a day” habit? It was developed to raise awareness to take a walk and set a goal to take 10,000 steps per day. While you are not required to complete 10,000 steps a day, you can set your own goal and increase your longevity by 5-10 years according to recent studies.
Kelly Evenson, PhD, professor of epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and doctoral alumna Mercedes Carnethon, PhD, vice chair of Northwestern’s Department of Preventive Medicine, are part of a group of scientists in the Steps for Health Collaborative who found out that walking more steps a day will help in increasing longevity. The findings from the study were published in Lancet Public Health led by physical activity epidemiologist Amanda Paluch, PhD.
Evenson stated that the meta-analysis was the largest completed regarding the association of steps with one’s mortality which involved similar findings across 15 different studies around the world. She also said that there is an incremental reduction in the risk of death for those who take the proper average daily steps.
Their research group combined data from 15 studies involving nearly 50,000 people from 4 different continents that investigated the effects of daily walking on one’s health and longevity. The participants were grouped into four categories according to steps per day. The lowest averaged 3,500 steps; the second, 5,800; the third, 7,800; and the fourth, 10,000 steps per day.
The results showed that there was a 40-53% lower risk of death for those in the three higher active groups who got more steps compared to the group with the lowest average steps per day. The major takeaway from the study is that moving, even a little, is very beneficial. Walking is good for health and helps in mortality risk levels of around 6,000 to 8,000 for older adults and 8,000 to 10,000 for younger adults.
Living The AgelessWorkout Mindset
The AgelessWorkout Method supports practices that can bring a better quality of life. We do employ the latest science-based data on each training program that we execute to ensure that we give the best results to our AgelessWorkout tribe members.
Agelessness is a mindset we want our AWT members to embrace and believe that no one is too old or too young to start their fitness journey. We know that “Movement is Medicine” and encourage you to embrace this mantra. If you are looking for a quick jump start to a better quality of life, you can start by doing something as simple as walking.
Sources:
- UNC, “How many steps lead to longevity? Study identifies new daily goals”, March 15, 2022, https://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/how-many-steps-lead-to-longevity-study-identifies-new-daily-goals/.
- Mary Ann Moon, “Seniors’ Walking Speed May Predict Life Expectancy”, Apr 01, 2011, https://www.caringfortheages.com/article/S1526-4114(11)60097-8/fulltext#relatedArticles.