How do you get 10,000 steps?

[Anonymous]

I go for an hour-long walk before work, during lunch and after work. Doing that I can hit 10K.

[Anonymous]

It is very easy for me to hit this on days I go to NYC. I live in a suburb.

On days I am not in NYC, it is much harder. I can get to this if I go on a walk or hike for 90 minutes or more.

[Anonymous]

It takes me 1.5 hours of walking. I break it into two sessions: walk my dog, drop him home, then go back out.

[Anonymous]

Do you use your phone to track steps? I'm thinking I should get a legit tracker for my wrist to "get" more steps in.

[Anonymous]

I don't. I also think I read that 6000-8000 steps is just as beneficial as 10,000. I pretty easily get that lower amount.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't. I also think I read that 6000-8000 steps is just as beneficial as 10,000. I pretty easily get that lower amount.

I should add that I don't run for exercise, I do strength training, HIIT, and yoga, so none of that counts into steps. I work out very regularly, so I feel like as long as I'm being active outside of my workouts and getting at least 6000 steps, I feel good about my health.

[Anonymous]

I do one 2 mile walk and a couple of shorter strolls when i have a few minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For me that’s 6 miles of walking. Who has time for that if you’re not a daily runner?

I’ve wondered if my Apple Watch has miscalculated my steps.

I just checked. I walked 11,400 steps yesterday and that was 5.25 miles. I am 5’7”.

I walk my dog 3 times a day plus run around after 3 kids.

[Anonymous]

I don’t always. On days I run I get 15,000+. On days I don’t and just go the gym I may get 7,000-8,000. It balances out. This week I was over 10k only 3 days but still averaged over 10k for the week.

[Anonymous]

You must live in the suburbs and drive everywhere if you find it hard to get that many steps. I’ve gone back-and-forth between urban living where I take public transportation and walking and I easily get 3 to 4 miles without even trying. Add in one intentional walk and that gets me up to 5 miles. When I live in the suburbs and drive everywhere, it takes a concerted effort just to walk 2 to 3 miles a day.

[Anonymous]

It's a lot. I walk my dogs 3x a day and don't get near 10k.

[Anonymous]

I live in NYC, and just getting a typical day's errands done will get me about 7k steps.

[Anonymous]

Worm from home, I try to get to 15k every day; I think of 10k as bare minimum: I walk for about an hour in the morning - that usually gets me to 6k-ish steps. I try to do 15 minutes of aerobics or gardening before I shower. That usually gets me to about 9500.

Walking around the house during the day would easily get me to 10k from there. (The last 5k is usually another walk after work, if we're not doing anything else at night.) DINKs (though I am recently laid off so I guess it's a SINK situation right now, good times) - not having kids means more flexibility in the schedule.

I walk the dog - but she doesn't love walking so that doesn't get me up by much! Also agree with parking as far as possible from store doorways and going up the stairs instead of the elevator.

I love to walk, so basically the only times I don't get enough steps are days I just can't - too busy; sick; that sort of thing. It's a great pleasure in life to be able to walk this much, for me.

The TL;DR is if you want to get to 10k you have to be pretty mindful of how much movement you're actually getting in a day for a while. Be vigilant about checking and topping up. Then you'll learn what it takes for you, and it won't take so much effort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher. Haha

Me, too! I’ve never had a problem getting steps in.

[Anonymous]

Walking my kids to and from school. And most days I go on an extra errand or a walk. I love walking around DC so I find errands to run or a shop to visit in another neighborhood.