One of the most important things you can do for your long-term health is to get regular exercise.
This is particularly true as we get older—exercise has been shown to improve cardiovascular health, maintain muscle and significantly reduce the likelihood of injury. It even improves our memory.
But this raises the obvious question: how much exercise is enough? The latest science is likely to surprise you.
The Questions
Before we get to the answer, however, we’d like to ask you two questions to help you set your own exercise goal.
1. How many steps do you think you should take per day?
a) Less than 2,500 steps (about 1 mile)
b) Between 2,500 and 5,000 steps (between 1 and 2.5 miles)
c) Between 5,000 and 10,000 steps (between 2.5 and 5 miles)
d) More than 10,000 steps (more than 5 miles)
e) Not sure
2. How many steps do you think you take per day? (If you don’t have a fitness tracker, feel free to estimate your mileage.)
a) Less than 2,500 steps (about 1 mile)
b) Between 2,500 and 5,000 steps (between 1 and 2.5 miles)
c) Between 5,000 and 10,000 steps (between 2.5 and 5 miles)
d) More than 10,000 steps (more than 5 miles)
e) Not sure
Answers
If you think that you should try to take “More than 10,000 steps” every day, but actually take many fewer steps, you’re not alone.
The good news is that new research suggests we don’t actually need that many steps to get the health and wellness benefits of exercise.
A 2019 study by researchers at Harvard showed that getting 4,400 steps was enough to lower the risk of early death by 40%, at least compared to people who got 2,700 steps or less per day.
What’s more, the benefits of getting additional steps stopped once people took about 7,000 steps per day.
This finding was replicated in another 2020 study by researchers at the National Institute of Aging that showed the benefits of exercise came from getting between 4,000 and 8,000 steps per day.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that you shouldn’t get more steps. But it does suggest that we shouldn’t get stressed if we fail to hit the target recommended by our fitness trackers. Instead, we should focus on achieving more modest exercise goals, such as getting 7,000 to 8,000 steps every day.
Research also suggests that simply standing up for a few minutes every hour can also provide large health benefits, even if you don’t take many steps.
Regardless, the experts agree that the best exercise plan is the one you can stick with.
It’s not about hitting some arbitrary number – it’s about making sure you move your body on a consistent basis.
Actions
- Forget about that 10k step goal.
- Adjust your fitness trackers down to a recommended goal of 7 to 8k steps.
- If you can’t do 8k steps per day, remember that even taking 4k steps can significantly improve your health.
Additional reading:
Lee, I-Min, et al. "Association of step volume and intensity with all-cause mortality in older women." JAMA Internal Medicine 179.8 (2019): 1105-1112.
