Move More… But Make It Easier!
The American Heart Association has designated April as Move More Month, with the 1st Wednesday of April as National Walking Day. Since our approach to wellness at Summerfield includes the 4 pillars of nutrition, sleep, stress, and activity, we feel passionate about educating people on the power of disease prevention and health promotion when it comes to movement!
The Many Benefits of Movement
Regular activity increases our heart rate and blood circulation, moving more oxygen to our cells and thus boosting our energy levels and reducing fatigue. This benefits us not only during the day but also by promoting more restful sleep at night (as long as intense activity isn’t done too close to bedtime, as it elevates heart rate and body temperature, thus hindering relaxation). Movement boosts our mood through the production of endorphins and can even offer a sense of connection, whether that’s with ourselves via a solo walk outside, a group fitness class with friends, or a yoga session with a colleague after work. These aspects are also correlated with lower stress levels.
More specifically, movement decreases the risk of several diseases, including heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, anxiety, and depression. Considering other common areas of concern, exercise supports bone density, improves memory, and benefits our gut microbiome. Last but not least, many individuals incorporate regular movement into their routine as a strategy for weight management. Whether it’s via the benefits of strength and resistance training, flexibility, or cardiovascular exercise, there is abundant data to indicate how regular activity optimizes blood sugar balance, builds and maintains lean muscle mass, and strengthens the heart (it’s also a muscle, after all!)
Rethinking the 10K Per Day Recommendation
To reevaluate this guideline, we need more context as to its origin. As the story goes, a 1965 marketing campaign in Japan was developed for an early pedometer (step counter) with a name and image that translated to ‘10,000 steps meter’. So, the message was to move more with this step counter device, but the takeaway that stuck was that 10,000 steps per day should be the goal.
Though there is supportive data on the benefits of walking 10K steps per day, there is also research to show we can reap most of the benefits from around 7,500 steps per day. As one researcher states, “the first 5,000 steps do much more good than the next 5,000 steps and so on. If the first (5,000) gives you one unit of good, the next is another half unit of good.”
The data covers a wide variety of health benefits (listed above), but every study doesn’t monitor the same things, for the same population, or track them in the same way or for the same time frame. Science is here to guide us, and when we zoom out, the recommendation of 7,500 steps per day provides ample benefit and may be more accessible to many in our modern, technology-dependent culture.
A final reason to consider this adjusted step target is to allow for more balance of other types of activity to reap broader benefits of movement. Including strength and resistance training has its own impressive set of advantages to health, that become increasingly important as we age to maintain lean muscle mass (key for metabolism, bone density, reduced risk of injury, and improved posture). If you’re interested in shifting away from the “10K per day” target, consider it an opportunity to diversify your movement.
Movement: Steps and Beyond
Since many of us aren’t doing physical labor for our jobs and spend much of our days more sedentary than is optimal, small but consistent actions to incorporate increased daily movement can go a long way. The goal is to find a midpoint between very few steps or just a workout (and the rest of the day at a desk) and feeling as though you need to get 10,000 steps to see any benefit. Instead, striving to add more natural movement in increments, anywhere from 2-10 minutes, is a fabulous approach. Let’s consider a few strategies.
The first strategy is likely something you have heard of before. To find small segments of time to simply walk for at least a few minutes (or ten, if you can). It may seem insignificant, but there’s proof that it’s not. Research on this concept related to blood sugar shows that even a five-minute walk after eating a meal has a measurable effect on moderating blood sugar levels. Individuals who walked within 60-90 minutes after a meal saw a more gradual increase in their blood sugar levels, and levels didn’t rise as high overall. This is beneficial because blood sugar spikes and drops (a sharp rise and/or drastic fall) can raise cardiovascular risk and is believed to play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes. So, if you can walk for 5 minutes after a meal, know that this time frame of movement is highly beneficial. And if not after a meal, make it a goal to get up every hour to walk around the office or your home for 2-3 minutes. Depending on your pace, you might just add an extra few thousand steps to your day!
If you want to increase the intensity, try ‘exercise snacking’. This concept is defined as a short period of movement with some intensity to elevate the heart rate, typically lasting no more than a few minutes. The goal is to build these into your day first as a reminder to simply move more often, but they’re also a beneficial way to achieve some of the benefits of exercise in smaller chunks.
Examples of exercise snack movements include (but aren’t limited to) jumping jacks, chair squats, lunges, pushups, stair climbing, and mountain climbers. Individuals might simply set a timer for 2 minutes and rotate through a few of these to keep their heart rate elevated and challenge their muscles for the duration of that time. Since part of the benefit is that it includes a higher intensity, it’s advised not to go directly from sitting at your desk to 2 minutes of these heart rate-boosting exercises. First, take a walk around the office to refill your water bottle and get your blood circulating, then come back and do 2 minutes of movement before dialing it back in at your desk.
Set a Goal and Create a New Habit
While information is valuable and can fuel action, to create transformation, it helps to develop a plan and set a goal. Consider what pieces of this article you feel could benefit your life and health. What small action could you include in your daily routine starting tomorrow? Maybe it’s setting a calendar reminder to take a 5-minute walk every hour during the workday. Or choosing one form of movement to add into the beginning or end of your day. Consider what you could feasibly do on most days, as consistency supports habit formation, and habits done regularly have the most value. Whether you want to add 2,000 steps to your day or a few quick bursts of movement to elevate your heart rate, know that the short amount of time spent will be a worthy investment for your health long into the future.
Resources:
https://www.sharp.com/health-news/how-7-000-steps-per-day-can-save-your-life
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/10000-steps-a-day-or-fewer-2019071117305
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/exercise-snacks
https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/taking-walk-after-eating-can-help-with-blood-sugar-control
https://diabetes.org/health-wellness/fitness/benefits-walking