With our busy lives, it’s inevitable that we won’t always be able to achieve the number of steps or the level of burned calories we want, so rather than being a great motivator, our fitness tracker becomes a permanent reminder of our failings – a dangerous path for people with mental health problems or compulsive personalities.
If you become ruled by the numbers it can affect your personal and social life – not able to eat out with friends or shunning time with a partner in favour of a run. But used well, fitness trackers are certainly not all bad – they can encourage and motivate us, holding us accountable to achieving our goals and not making excuses.
The statistics shown can be rather crude – and who came up with the magic number of 10,000 steps anyway? Even if you’re only managing 2,000-3,000 steps a day, if you’re developing muscle mass and decreasing in clothing size, you’re doing great! We shouldn’t rely too much on our trackers or expect too much from them – they can’t exercise for us and they can’t encourage us if we don’t have the inner motivation.
Lots of people ask me: is the 10,000 steps target enough or too much? This goal was created by a pedometer company in Japan in the 1960s and was adopted by walking clubs. There was no medical research around this number but it was subsequently found to be a good indicator that you are getting near your daily amount of physical activity and reducing your health risks.
However, it’s not just about the overall number but how brisk/active the steps are, taking you into the golden band of moderate-to-vigorous activity. 10,000 steps can be too challenging for elderly people or those who are starting from a very sedentary lifestyle or people with a chronic disease.
Experts also consider 10,000 steps per day to be too few for children who need 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per day, twice what is needed by adults.
So if it feels too daunting to reach a goal of 10,000 steps per day, try to work towards getting 30 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per day and reducing how much you’re sitting down.
Our fitness classes at Gemma Pearce Fitness offer more than enough exercise in a fun, motivating and friendly environment. Find a class that suits you at www.gemmapearcefitness.co.uk