This movement habit is about deliberately increasing your daily step count by giving yourself a range to aim for.
🎯 Habit Instructions:
- ✅ Easy Mode: Go for a deliberate 10-20 minute walk (beginner) or 20-40 minute walk (intermediate/advanced) today.
- ✅ Hard Mode: Look up your average daily step count for the past 3-6 months and aim for 2,000-3,000 steps more than your average today.
📢 More Information:
Moving more throughout the day is one of the easiest and most reliable ways to improve your wellbeing.
According to Mark Sisson, author of the Primal Blueprint, some of the reasons you should be walking more include:
- It helps reduce body fat.
- It improves glycemic control (better blood glucose control and more stable insulin levels).
- It improves triglyceride levels and lowers blood pressure.
- It’s good for your brain (cognition, memory, academic performance, creativity, and logic tests).
- It reduces stress and boosts immune function.
- It prevents falls in the elderly.
- It gives you a chance to think and can be a form of meditation.
- It keeps your buttocks engaged with the world, because excessive sitting causes glute inactivation and atrophy which brings about back pain, instability, and reduces strength.
- It’s well tolerated by people with arthritis and many other health conditions who might not otherwise be able to exercise.
🏃♀️ How Much Should You Walk?
Walking is just one of the many ways that you can improve your level of physical activity, so it will depend a lot on how active you are in other ways throughout the day.
However, we recommend using this as a guide to aim for:
- 4,000 steps a day (beginner – someone who lives a VERY sedentary lifestyle).
- 6,000 steps a day (intermediate – someone who lives a moderately sedentary lifestyle).
- 8,000 steps a day (advanced – someone who lives a moderately active lifestyle).
- 10,000+ steps a day (elite – someone who lives a very active lifestyle).
Whichever category you choose, it should be a challenge. It should push you out of your comfort zone so that you get better.
Getting your steps in shouldn’t be a “happy accident”. You should be consciously and actively looking for ways to add in more movement and walking throughout your day such as going for walks at lunch, taking the stairs, parking in the back of the parking lot, or walking the dog instead of watching TV on.
If you normally walk with a watch or phone that tracks your steps, you can go look at that data to see what your daily average usually is and then aim for something that’s 2,000 – 3,000 steps higher.
Also, just so you know, the average person walking at a brisk and determined pace can expect to walk these number of steps based on distance and time walked:
| Steps | Distance Walked | Time Spent Walking |
| 1,000 | 0.8km | 10 minutes |
| 2,000 | 1.6km | 20 minutes |
| 3,000 | 2.4km | 30 minutes |
| 4,000 | 3.2km | 40 minutes |
| 5,000 | 4km | 50 minutes |
| 6,000 | 4.8km | 1 hour |
| 7,000 | 5.6km | 1 hour 10 minutes |
| 8,000 | 6.4km | 1 hour 20 minutes |
| 9,000 | 7.2km | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| 10,000 | 8km | 1 hour 40 minutes |
🔁 Make It a Habit
Beginners:
- Schedule at least 1 deliberate 10-20 minute walk in your day to help get your step count up.
- Meet up with a friend for a coffee and walk to make it enjoyable and social.
- Sign up for a parkrun (that you can walk on a Saturday) or a Myrun on a Sunday.
- Aim for at least 4,000 steps a day (beginner – someone who lives a VERY sedentary lifestyle).
Intermediates and Advanced:
- Schedule at least 1 deliberate 20-40 minute walk in your day to help get your step count up.
- Aim for 6,000 steps a day (intermediate – someone who lives a moderately sedentary lifestyle).
- Aim for 8,000 steps a day (advanced – someone who lives a moderately active lifestyle).
- Aim for 10,000+ steps a day (elite – someone who lives a very active lifestyle).
