There is a consensus among fitness and health professionals that the ancient art of walking is still one of the best, cheapest and safest ways to maintain or develop health/fitness, help stabilize or lose weight and to manage the daily stressors of life. The single best stimulus to walk, other than the pleasure of walking itself, is the pedometer. The pedometer allows you to be an informed walker by counting your steps, calories burned and distance traveled. Research by Stephen Blair and others has shown that moderate activity such as brisk walking promotes a variety of health benefits. You can literally walk away from diabetes, heart disease and stroke. The old Whitehall studies conducted by Jerry Morris et al. looked at the amount of walking involved in their subjects' daily commute and found that the more they walked the less likely they were to have a heart attack. Walking is low cost, low impact and accessible to almost everybody. In 2003 the pedometer has walked through the door in style. Recently it has been written up in the June 2003 edition of Oprah's magazine, the July 2003 edition of Chatelaine and endorsed by Dr. James Hill who created and maintains the National Weight Control Registry. Dr. Hill points out, "a step counter is an incredible motivator. When people use one, they tend to stick with the program." Moreover, many professionals, researchers, educators and lay people are also convinced that one of the biggest motivators to help you keep walking is the pedometer. Oprah has endorsed the pedometer by saying "Smart move for everyone, it's walking season. To start, get a pedometer and count how many steps you take each day." The American Cancer Society promotes the use of pedometers and makes them available as a way of both treating and preventing cancer. And now I am sharing the secrets of using a pedometer to increase daily walking in my book Manpo-kei: The Art and Science of Step Counting. Based on my own research conducted in Canada and the U.S. since 1997, the book presents the straight-forward methods for taking back our naturally active lifestyles using the simple and inexpensive pedometer. This pedometer-based lifestyle even includes its own unique glossary of terms, some of which are included at the end of this article. Just give me the facts The child like questions of "are we there yet?" and "how much further do we need to go?" are very relevant for today's walker. In order to be realistic, people need accurate feedback about their performance. One of the characteristics of people who lose weight and keep it off is that they weigh themselves frequently. Virtually every survey and piece of research in which people self-report estimates of their caloric intake, physical activity or fitness level is questionable, as people invariably overestimate their performance (to put it bluntly, they lie to themselves and the researchers). The pedometer brings reality to the world of movement. With a pedometer you know how many steps you have taken, how many calories you have burned as well as how far you have walked or jogged. Significantly, you can TRACK this behavior from day to day to help make healthier choices. What are pedometers and how do they work? Pedometers are simple and inexpensive gadgets ($20-50) that attach to your clothing or belt, just above your hipbone. They have an internal lever mechanism that detects the up and down movement at the hip while walking (or running) and translates this into steps taken. They are considered by researchers to be acceptably accurate for assessing typical walking behaviors (see Well Article Summer 2002). How many steps per day do people typically take? We can expect active children to take 12,000-16,000 steps/day and healthy younger adults take 7,000-13,000 steps/day. Healthy older adults typically take 6,000-8,500 steps/day and those living with chronic illnesses or with disabilities take 3,500-5,500 steps/day. So the burning question for you the reader is, "How many steps per day should I take?" How many steps per day should I take? Although the popular goal of 10,000 steps/day can be traced to the Japanese nickname for a pedometer ("manpo-kei," which literally means "10,000 steps meter"), that number of steps/day may be too low for active children and can be challenging for sedentary people embarking on a new lifestyle. However, as Michaelangelo so eloquently stated, "The problem is not that your hopes are too high and you fail to reach them, it's that they're too low and you do." In my book Manpo-kei: The Art and Science of Step Counting I recommend a more individualized approach to goal-setting and tracking using a pedometer. The primary concept is to take more steps than before...that is more steps per day than at baseline, prior to any lifestyle change. Although I suggest strategies for increasing your daily steps, the best ones come from you as you practice your new lifestyle. The book provides guidance, including work sheets to help you select your personalized strategies and achieve your goals. One realistic approach that accommodates the public health recommendations is to find out how many steps per day you are taking now and gradually increase it by an amount that is equivalent to 30-60 minutes of brisk walking. For example, depending on your walking speed, people will take approximately 1000 steps in 10 minutes. You can personalize this even more by determining exactly how many steps you take in 10 minutes while wearing your pedometer. Then in order to find out how many steps you take in 30 minutes or an hour, just multiply your 10 minute number by 3 or 6 respectively. Based on your own personal goals and schedules you can now accurately assess how much time and distance it will take to increase or modify your step total. You don't have to increase your activity by this amount all at once; you can always build yourself up by increasing 10 minutes one week and 20 the following week until you are comfortable with your new active lifestyle. How do I find out how many steps per day I take? By wearing a pedometer for a full week without altering your usual activity, you will have a valid baseline that can later be increased if needed. During this first week, take special note of what you do differently on days when your steps per day are higher and lower. For example, you might discover that the days when you go shopping, walking on the beach, or to the park with your child are higher than the days you stay at home or travel long distances in the car. You will find this information useful when you subsequently try to select effective STRATEGIES to maximize your steps per day. How do I work on increasing my steps per day? Once you have a STEP GOAL (your BASELINE plus a STEP INCREMENT or the amount you want to increase by) focus on working towards this goal one day at a time. Look at your pedometer frequently throughout the day to find out where you are and what you need to do to meet your day end goal. Pay attention to what strategies you practice that elicit the most number of steps and repeat these as often as you can. For example, parking farther away from stores might seem to produce relatively few extra steps, but the more you practice this strategy the more the steps will add up. Another approach that I promote is to include SPIKE DAYS to your week. This is an advanced technique of GOAL-SETTING an elevated step goal, above your usual step goal, a self-determined number of days/week. For example, say you usually try for 8500 steps/day. Twice a week you may try to get 15,000 steps/day so that your weekly average is actually over 10,000 steps/day! Is there a single best STRATEGY? Although I reveal a number of research tested strategies that have worked for others in my book, the single best strategy that has consistently emerged is: include others. Social support is perhaps one of the best strategies for increasing your steps per day. Show family members your pedometer and get them interested in increasing their own walking behaviors. Schedule walks with your friends. Get your coworkers involved in going for a walk at lunch hour. Phone someone and ask them how their walking is going. Take your dog for the walk he/she deserves. Not only will you benefit from the support you derive, but you will also be passing the gift of wellness onto others. Conclusion In Oprah's words, "Walk It Off! The absolutely surest, safest, most painless way to lose weight." Today, more and more people are taking an active approach to the monitoring of their wellness. However, this idea of using an instrument to count the number of times you step in a day is nothing new. Leonardo DaVinci considered such an instrument in his quest for a distance-measuring device to construct maps. With the arrival of modern pedometers just after the Tokyo Olympics of 1964, the Zen of pedometers has remained a part of Japanese life ever since. Today, the top 5 reasons to wear a pedometer are:
*Adapted from: Smart Stepping Student Guide by Robert Sweetgall and Robert Neeves, 2002. So there it is. The road to an active lifestyle can be as easy as putting your best foot forward (followed by the other one of course). About the Author Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke is an Assistant Professor of Health Promotion in the Department of Exercise and Wellness at Arizona State University East. Her research is focused on understanding and addressing the problems associated with sedentary lifestyles in a range of populations including youth, older adults, and individuals with Type 2 diabetes. She developed the First Step Program, a novel daily physical activity intervention and capitalizes on a simple and inexpensive pedometer as a self-monitoring and goal-setting tool. Dr. Tudor-Locke is the author of a self-help book based on the First Step Program titled Manpo-kei: The Art and Science of Step Counting (2003 Trafford Publishing). She monitors her own physical activity daily with a pedometer and averages 14,000 steps per day.
Manpo-kei Practitioner's Glossary (adapted from Manpo-kei: The Art and Science of Step Counting)
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