So what is the ideal step goal?

Welcome to Walking is Fitness. This is a podcast of action providing a little extra of motivation

to help you keep that fitness promise you made to yourself.

Hi, I'm Dave. I've been walking for fitness since 2013, averaging about 21,000 steps. I am Dave. I've been walking for fitness since 2013, averaging about 21,000 steps. I am walking

right now and would love to have you join me for the next 10 minutes. It is a very warm and

sticky morning in South Carolina.

Let's just say that the forecast for later this afternoon is a heat index of 106 degrees.

And I'll just leave it right there.

I hope that where you are, the weather is to your liking. Thanks for joining me. So what is the

ideal step goal? Let's start with 10,000 steps, since that seems to be the universally popular

goal that most of us aspire to or reach and want to maintain.

There was no science behind that number when it stuck in the popular consciousness.

It actually goes back to the mid-60s.

There was a Japanese company that created a pedometer. And to market it,

they called it a 10,000 step meter in Japanese. And that marketing campaign was so successful

that the idea of 10,000 steps stuck. Of course, we love big numbers.

10,000 feels like a lot because it is,

but it also feels like it's something that you can achieve

and you can.

Terrible starting goal,

but it is a goal that once you get moving and you consistently increase your

fitness capacity and your ability to walk more, most of us can reach 10,000 steps and maintain it.

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