May 5, 2005 – Taking 10,000 steps a day, counting them with a pedometer, would be more effective for regular fitness than setting a goal of 30 minutes of daily walking.
This is what emerges from a study carried out by researchers at the University of Tennessee, in the United States, who compared the two approaches with 58 sedentary and overweight women. For four weeks, 27 of them were instructed to walk for 30 minutes each day, while the remaining 31 were advised to wear a pedometer and take 10,000 steps per day.
All participants wore a pedometer sealed so that they could not read it. The walkers in the “10,000 steps” group wore a second one, this one allowing them to see the number of steps taken. The data recorded by the pedometers was sent to the researchers on a weekly basis.
At the end of the experiment, the women in the “30 minutes” group had accumulated a daily average of 8,270 steps, compared to 10,159 for those in the “10,000 steps” group.
In general, all participants achieved their respective goal (30 minutes of walk or 10,000 steps) four days out of seven. The study authors observed that during the three days of “rest”, those in the group “30 minutes” did not take more steps than the number they took before the start of the study. However, even on “leave”, those in the group of “10,000 steps” did more than they used to before the start of the experiment. All this, according to the researchers, tends to show that aiming to achieve 10,000 steps per day is more likely to meet and exceed your goals than to aim to allocate 30 minutes per day to walking.
Another positive consequence of the experience is that the participants in both groups all saw their blood pressure drop. Like what the important thing is to walk, no matter how you manage to motivate yourself.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
According to WebMD and Intelihealth.
1. Hultquist CN, Albright C, Thompson DL, Comparison of Walking Recommendations in Previously Inactive Women, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, April 2005, Vol. 37, N 4, 676-83.
