Walking is important, but challenging yourself to go faster and higher can improve your health even more.
We love counting steps. Maybe it’s because we like goals or else the constant reminder on our wrists of how far we’ve gone and need to go to hit a daily target. Or it could also be that study after study says walking is one of the most attainable ways to increase longevity.
So we ask ourselves: How many steps are enough? Are more steps better? A paper published recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that as few as 2,200 steps could help fight diseases exacerbated by a sedentary lifestyle like heart disease and diabetes, though walking up to 9,000 steps was more effective.
But focusing purely on the number of steps misses the whole picture. Researchers now say that after a certain point, what kind of steps you’re taking is just as important as the amount.
So whether you’re hitting that bare minimum target of 2,200 steps or you’re consistently logging 10,000, here are a few tactics to make more of your daily walk.
Begin walking.
The first step for anyone who has fallen out of the habit of walking is to just start, said Amanda Paluch, a kinesiology professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Walk around the block or make loops through your house. See if you can walk 2,000 steps, roughly one mile, then increase from there.
If you’re older or have a chronic condition that makes it harder to get up and move, walking at any speed is helpful for your health, she said.