Step counting is so popular that there's an unofficial 10,000 steps benchmark.
The long-held belief of aiming for 10,000 steps a day to improve heart health gains credibility from a new study. While the origin of this target remains unclear, possibly linked to a Japanese marketing campaign, research now suggests there might be truth to it.
A team led by Matthew Ahmadi from the University of Sydney, Australia, analyzed data from over 72,000 participants in the UK Biobank study. These individuals wore wrist-worn activity trackers for a week and were then followed for an average of nearly seven years. During this period, researchers documented over 1,600 deaths and 6,000 heart-related events.
After accounting for factors like diet, smoking, and other forms of exercise, the study found that the sweet spot for daily steps appears to be between 9,000 and 10,000. Taking these many steps was linked to a significant decrease in both death risk (39%) and heart problems (21%).
This research adds weight to the idea of aiming for 10,000 steps for better heart health, although the benefits seem to plateau beyond this range.
"We were able to quantify daily steps," Dr Ahmadi told NewScientist.
The advice of 10,000 steps a day for good health didn't originate from scientists; it was invented by Japanese clock company Yamasa ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The company had created a personal-fitness pedometre called the Manpo-kei, which means "10000 steps metre."
"This paper helps the field take a great stride forward, pardon the pun, in refining the science that underpins physical activity and sedentary time guidelines," says Dale Esliger at Loughborough University in the UK. "It does appear to support the notion that the originally non-evidence based 10,000-step target may indeed be about right."