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Doctors: It's really important that you regularly exercise. Get your heart rate up high a few times a week with some sports! Doctors: Just 10,000 steps of walk

Doctors: It's really important that you regularly exercise. Get your heart rate up high a few times a week with some sports! Doctors: Just 10,000 steps of walking every day is fine too! Doctors: Ok, how about 8,000 steps only once or twice a week. Can you do that? Doctors: For the love of god, please just get off the couch every once in a while...

farseer 4y ago
You joke but perhaps we need to (scientifically) find the minimum number of steps for a reasonable lifespan in tabular form for a given weight, lifestyle, diet, occupation and ethnicity. The law of diminishing returns will apply after a certain amount of physical activity. So will negative consequences of too much exercise where you damage your limbs.
- fdsijo 4y ago
  Worrying about over exercise is like worrying about starting another ice age fighting global warming.
- notahacker 4y ago
  Untangling cause and effect (it clearly works both directions) is near-impossible, the intensity of the steps obviously also matters, and anyone trying to exercise to the statistical minimum before diminishing returns kick in probably has other issues. I don't think many people need to worry about limb damage from over-walking, and the ones who have already experienced limb damage need to find alternative exercise rather than minmaxing steps...
- anonporridge 4y ago
  The absolute worse thing you can do for your knees and other joints is be obese. The constant weight and stress wrecks you. This is also why young, fit males come out of the military with wrecked knees, not because of all the running, but because they march around constantly carrying 100+ lb packs, on bodies that would be at a healthy weight of 150lbs. There's even evidence that distance running strengthens your knees, contrary to common knowledge. https://archive.ph/utsUF https://archive.ph/utsUF Worrying about too much exercise for the average person is like worrying about drinking too much water on a desert hike.
- qayxc 4y ago
  Isn't that overthinking it big time? Biologically humans have evolved to walk roughly 10-15km a day. You really have to overdo it to get to negative consequences of light physical activities such as walking. Just talking a one hour walk every day surely doesn't get you anywhere near the red zone, provided you're otherwise reasonably healthy.
  - ClumsyPilot 4y ago
    I am by no means an expert of any kind, but I know several people that seem to have damages their needs by pushing themselves in running or cycling.
    - xboxnolifes 4y ago
      Both of which are not walking.
- comfypotato 4y ago
  There’s not much science for the ultramarathon folks, but in general more is better. This talk of negative consequences of too much exercise has no grounding in reality.
  - seattle_spring 4y ago
    The people I see that cite the risks of "over exercising" are exclusively people in bad shape. My sister in law, sedentary and textbook obese, insists that running is dangerous for anyone due to the "extra stress it puts on knees." It's just an excuse people use to convince themselves that they're doing the right thing by not moving much. I see it too with people not eating healthy foods like vegetables because they read somewhere that the pesticide residue or whatever is worse for you than just eating processed food all day.
    - jtbayly 4y ago
      I’d guess that starting to run while obese would indeed do substantial damage to the joints.
  - chas 4y ago
    I think it’s important to note that you are assuming a gradual increase in activity over time as well as adequate food and rest between sessions. In the limit case things like rhabdomyolysis definitely exist and in the less-extreme case, you can have problems with connective tissue injuries from increasing the load or volume of exercise too fast. Over the long term, you can also have health problems and injuries caused by doing too much exercise relative to how much food and rest you are getting. All of these are real possibilities if someone started an intense exercise program after 20 years of completely sedentary life as an adult. That said, we are discussing this in the context of walking a bit more, which should be very well-tolerated for pretty much everyone as long as they don’t have other significant health problems and work up gradually. For example, if you take 1000 steps a day, space out the increase by each week increasing your daily steps by 500-1000 steps a day until you reach 10000 steps a day over the course of a few months (temporarily pause or reverse the increases if you see anything other than passing muscular discomfort). This also explains how ultramarathon (or other “extreme” physical activities) can be tolerated without much issue—bodies are very good at adapting to the loads that are placed on them as long as that increase is gradual and they have enough food and rest to rebuild after particularly intense bouts of activity. A further corollary is that over the long term, being sedentary is not well-tolerated at all, so maintaining a certain baseline level of physical activity is definitely a better idea and as long as your body isn’t giving you any feedback to the contrary, you shouldn’t avoid high loads or intense activity just out of abstract fear of injury.
- fwungy 4y ago
  Metabolism is genetic, Diabetes is too. You need to include genetic factors.
MuffinFlavored 4y ago
> An average person has a stride length of approximately 2.1 to 2.5 feet. That means that it takes over 2,000 steps to walk one mile and 10,000 steps would be almost 5 miles.
- lonelygirl15a 4y ago
  The word “mile” comes from Latin “mille passus”, one thousand paces. A pace was measures from same footfalls: left, left, left. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile#Historical https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile#Historical
- mejutoco 4y ago
  For other readers, about 8km.
jillesvangurp 4y ago
It's good advice though. I used to not move around a lot and it was having an impact. These days I build walking into my routine. I walk to work, about 5km. Takes me about 55 minutes. I try to do this several times per week. Sometimes I take public transport or the bike if I'm in a hurry. Usually I walk back as well. And when I'm working from home, I take a walk during lunch break or at the end of the day. It took the covid lockdowns for me to discover that I actually enjoy this stuff. I put some headphones on and listen some podcasts. I can't focus on a podcast at home or while working. I get distracted or I start doing other things and lose focus. When I walk, I listen. So when I want to listen to a podcast, I just go for a walk now. And if it's a long podcast, I just walk a bit longer. Anyway, this stuff does seem to work for me. And I don't even mind doing it. Win win.
alpaca128 4y ago
I heard that the reason behind the popular 10k step number was the first step counter on the market which was limited to 9999 steps, and people saw that as a challenge to reach. Meanwhile this is more like the 5th study I've heard of which talks about some measure of exercise at least 1-2 times a week, like 20+ minutes of cycling.
HopenHeyHi 4y ago
Correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adherence_(medicine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adherence_(medicine) Although the studies I glanced at say something like: <2000 steps, couch potato, certain doom >2000 greatest reduction in risk 6,000–9,000 steps per day 50% reduced risk of CVD for 60+ year olds <=== you want to get used to this as your baseline to be a healthy silver fox 10k steps, marketing for original pedometer 20k steps, best way to lose weight, almost nobody does this daily :) Here is a depressing video High School Fitness (1962): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGa6BPj3Mcw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGa6BPj3Mcw And the easiest one to compare is of course US basic training standards that have gone down each time they have been revised since WWII.
readthenotes1 4y ago
Doctors: at the very least, do not sit in the couch, recline. Sitting is very bad for you!

farseer 4y ago

You joke but perhaps we need to (scientifically) find the minimum number of steps for a reasonable lifespan in tabular form for a given weight, lifestyle, diet, occupation and ethnicity. The law of diminishing returns will apply after a certain amount of physical activity. So will negative consequences of too much exercise where you damage your limbs.

fdsijo 4y ago
Worrying about over exercise is like worrying about starting another ice age fighting global warming.
notahacker 4y ago
Untangling cause and effect (it clearly works both directions) is near-impossible, the intensity of the steps obviously also matters, and anyone trying to exercise to the statistical minimum before diminishing returns kick in probably has other issues. I don't think many people need to worry about limb damage from over-walking, and the ones who have already experienced limb damage need to find alternative exercise rather than minmaxing steps...
anonporridge 4y ago
The absolute worse thing you can do for your knees and other joints is be obese. The constant weight and stress wrecks you. This is also why young, fit males come out of the military with wrecked knees, not because of all the running, but because they march around constantly carrying 100+ lb packs, on bodies that would be at a healthy weight of 150lbs. There's even evidence that distance running strengthens your knees, contrary to common knowledge. https://archive.ph/utsUF https://archive.ph/utsUF Worrying about too much exercise for the average person is like worrying about drinking too much water on a desert hike.
qayxc 4y ago
Isn't that overthinking it big time? Biologically humans have evolved to walk roughly 10-15km a day. You really have to overdo it to get to negative consequences of light physical activities such as walking. Just talking a one hour walk every day surely doesn't get you anywhere near the red zone, provided you're otherwise reasonably healthy.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago
  I am by no means an expert of any kind, but I know several people that seem to have damages their needs by pushing themselves in running or cycling.
  - xboxnolifes 4y ago
    Both of which are not walking.
comfypotato 4y ago
There’s not much science for the ultramarathon folks, but in general more is better. This talk of negative consequences of too much exercise has no grounding in reality.
- seattle_spring 4y ago
  The people I see that cite the risks of "over exercising" are exclusively people in bad shape. My sister in law, sedentary and textbook obese, insists that running is dangerous for anyone due to the "extra stress it puts on knees." It's just an excuse people use to convince themselves that they're doing the right thing by not moving much. I see it too with people not eating healthy foods like vegetables because they read somewhere that the pesticide residue or whatever is worse for you than just eating processed food all day.
  - jtbayly 4y ago
    I’d guess that starting to run while obese would indeed do substantial damage to the joints.
- chas 4y ago
  I think it’s important to note that you are assuming a gradual increase in activity over time as well as adequate food and rest between sessions. In the limit case things like rhabdomyolysis definitely exist and in the less-extreme case, you can have problems with connective tissue injuries from increasing the load or volume of exercise too fast. Over the long term, you can also have health problems and injuries caused by doing too much exercise relative to how much food and rest you are getting. All of these are real possibilities if someone started an intense exercise program after 20 years of completely sedentary life as an adult. That said, we are discussing this in the context of walking a bit more, which should be very well-tolerated for pretty much everyone as long as they don’t have other significant health problems and work up gradually. For example, if you take 1000 steps a day, space out the increase by each week increasing your daily steps by 500-1000 steps a day until you reach 10000 steps a day over the course of a few months (temporarily pause or reverse the increases if you see anything other than passing muscular discomfort). This also explains how ultramarathon (or other “extreme” physical activities) can be tolerated without much issue—bodies are very good at adapting to the loads that are placed on them as long as that increase is gradual and they have enough food and rest to rebuild after particularly intense bouts of activity. A further corollary is that over the long term, being sedentary is not well-tolerated at all, so maintaining a certain baseline level of physical activity is definitely a better idea and as long as your body isn’t giving you any feedback to the contrary, you shouldn’t avoid high loads or intense activity just out of abstract fear of injury.
fwungy 4y ago
Metabolism is genetic, Diabetes is too. You need to include genetic factors.

MuffinFlavored 4y ago

> An average person has a stride length of approximately 2.1 to 2.5 feet. That means that it takes over 2,000 steps to walk one mile and 10,000 steps would be almost 5 miles.

lonelygirl15a 4y ago
The word “mile” comes from Latin “mille passus”, one thousand paces. A pace was measures from same footfalls: left, left, left. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile#Historical https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile#Historical
mejutoco 4y ago
For other readers, about 8km.

jillesvangurp 4y ago

It's good advice though. I used to not move around a lot and it was having an impact. These days I build walking into my routine. I walk to work, about 5km. Takes me about 55 minutes. I try to do this several times per week. Sometimes I take public transport or the bike if I'm in a hurry. Usually I walk back as well. And when I'm working from home, I take a walk during lunch break or at the end of the day. It took the covid lockdowns for me to discover that I actually enjoy this stuff. I put some headphones on and listen some podcasts. I can't focus on a podcast at home or while working. I get distracted or I start doing other things and lose focus. When I walk, I listen. So when I want to listen to a podcast, I just go for a walk now. And if it's a long podcast, I just walk a bit longer. Anyway, this stuff does seem to work for me. And I don't even mind doing it. Win win.

alpaca128 4y ago

I heard that the reason behind the popular 10k step number was the first step counter on the market which was limited to 9999 steps, and people saw that as a challenge to reach. Meanwhile this is more like the 5th study I've heard of which talks about some measure of exercise at least 1-2 times a week, like 20+ minutes of cycling.

HopenHeyHi 4y ago

Correct: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adherence_(medicine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adherence_(medicine) Although the studies I glanced at say something like: <2000 steps, couch potato, certain doom >2000 greatest reduction in risk 6,000–9,000 steps per day 50% reduced risk of CVD for 60+ year olds <=== you want to get used to this as your baseline to be a healthy silver fox 10k steps, marketing for original pedometer 20k steps, best way to lose weight, almost nobody does this daily :) Here is a depressing video High School Fitness (1962): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGa6BPj3Mcw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGa6BPj3Mcw And the easiest one to compare is of course US basic training standards that have gone down each time they have been revised since WWII.

readthenotes1 4y ago

Doctors: at the very least, do not sit in the couch, recline. Sitting is very bad for you!