Walk 10K Steps a Day for Health

According to the Surgeon General, we should get 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day beyond normal acticities. Also, it doesn't need to be done all at the same time. So you could take a 10 minute walk, do 15 minutes of gardening and maybe 10 minutes of housecleaning throughout the day, this counts towards those figures. However, the goal really is to do an additional 30 minutes of exercise a day over and above your typical daily routine.

Personally, I like to set aside a dedicated exercise period where I do exercisel; walking, riding a bike, etc. And then I figure anything else I do - like walking the dog, working in the yard, etc. is bonus exercise.

For folks who are not able to set aside a dedicated large block of exercise time, it gets a bit harder to remember if you took enough time to do your exercise today.

Here is a way to find out.

A typical person will take about 5-6000 steps in an average day. This is all part of your typical daily routine of living. The goal is to add an additional 4-5000 steps per day - about the amount you would do in a comfortably paced daily 30 minute walk.

10,000 steps sounds like a huge number but you would be amazed at how many steps you are already taking a day. I think the number is huge because we wonder how we are ever going to count all the steps in the day. After all, on a scale of things to think about, this one rates pretty low.

Well, once again technology comes to the rescue. There is a small device called a pedometer that will track all your steps for you automatically. You just clip it on your belt or tie it around your waist and it will record every step that you take that day.

You can find a large variety of pedometers by Oregon Scientific in the $30 to $40 range. All are high quality and have a variety of features associated with them. Some are fairly basic - measuring just how far you walk. Others have advanced features like taking your pulse and letting you know how many calories you have burned.

In addition to being a very inexpensive and practical exercise aid, pedometers are fun because they let you see how much walking you really accumulate during a typical day. It is a great way to visually see your progession towards greater health every day.