Welcome back to Get Fit Guy. I'm your host, Dr. Jonathan Sue. Every week, I'll share

science-backed tips to help you get fit, stay fit, and optimize performance. Now that we're in

the full swing of spring, with more moderate weather,

most people are spending more time outdoors engaging in activities such as running,

walking, or hiking. It's a great way to soak in the beauty of spring and enjoy

quality time with friends or family while also getting exercise. The weather here in the San Francisco Bay area

has been spectacular, so my partner, Farah, and I decided to take our preschooler and toddler on

their first real hike. We bathed the 1.8 mile out-and-back hike that included over a hundred

steps down to a rocky secluded beach along the Lands End Coastal Trail

in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. After spending some time playing in the sand

and stacking rocks on top of each other, we made our way back up the trail, with me carrying

the toddler, of course. I was really feeling the burn in my legs about two-thirds of the way back

up the steps, and it made me think about how incredible the human body is to be able to perform

repetitive movements such as walking, running, and hiking for prolonged periods with relatively

few issues. Allow me to nerd out for a moment.

Assuming the average person has a stride length of 2 to 2.5 feet,

it takes about 2,000 steps to walk one mile.

A study published in 2010 of over 1,000 Americans found that participants averaged about 5,000 steps a day,

which adds up to over 1.8 million steps a year.

If you run, walk, or hike two days or more a week for exercise, you can easily more than

double that if you combine the number of steps you perform during exercise with the number

of steps you perform throughout the day. The human body is truly an incredible machine to be just fine racking up that many steps every

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