THE POWER OF 10,000 STEPS

Thousand Years ago our Ancestors did one thing to help them stay in tip-top shape. It is why Humans are the greatest mammals on the planet because we have the ability to cover the most distance on land.

How you might ask? WALKING

Walking is one of the most powerful ways to keep the body in a constant state of motion, and it is really relaxing and fun to do. It has many benefits to burn fat, extra calories and get the mind moving. A Body in Motion Stays in Motion while a Body at Rest stays at Rest.

How do you start Walking?

Now, the solution to walking is often a easy, but difficult solution…

All it takes is putting on a pari of shoes, going outside and walking places…

The hard thing about that is getting the body moving, getting started.

The Goal

The goal is to do 10,000 steps per day!! This is equivalent to about 1.5 hours of walking daily or 5 miles a day. Now, it’s important to note that everything counts towards this number. Getting out of bed counts... Walking to your car (counts).. Walking around your house counts… So it’s not as hard as you think…. 

A easy simple tip to get more steps in is while brushing your teeth in the morning and night walk around the house for 2 minutes while you brush your teeth and boom thats nearly 4 mins of walking and 500 extra steps.

Another quick tip is when you are on a phone call or needing to think of ideas, you might find yourself pacing around the house. Pacing makes the body move and as the body moves the brain also processes information and allows thinking to happen.

Walking Burns Calories

Walking 10,000 steps adds significantly to your daily calorie burn, making fat loss quick easy and muscle recovery speed up. 10,000 steps is roughly 5 miles or 8km’s…. To find out how many calories this burns take your weight in kg’s and multiply it by 8 (total km’s walked)…
For me, I’m 185 lbs (84kg)… 84kg x 8 = 672 calories burned.. This puts my daily energy expenditure right where it needs to be to achieve the perfect rate of fat loss on my nutrition plan.

I like to use the health app in my iPhone to track steps taken, this makes life very easy! My favorite way to get my 10k steps in is to break it up throughout the day… 

ex:
- 20-30 minute walk in the morning before school / work
- 20-30 minute walk at lunch break
- 20-30 minute walk in the evening 

You can structure it however you like to fit what goes on in your life. If you go for a 1-2 hour long walk with a friend, it counts...

Double Bonus for Walking:

Throwing on a podcast or audio book while you walk. Over a course of these 12 weeks of walking // 7 days a week. That's nearly 1 and a half audiobook a week on 1x speed, imagine listening to it on 2x or even faster speed. That's 2-3 books a week over 12 weeks for a total of 8-12 books! If you are able to listen on 3x speed over the course of only 3 months thats nearly 12-16 books!

Power of Walking

When you start increasing your steps to 10k per day, you’re going to notice a few things.

Feeling Better

First off, you’re going to feel better. Human beings are not designed to be sitting down all day. Most jobs have a person sitting down for hours upon hours and the blood flow is having a hard time flowing. Even if you’re exercising hard several times per week, being highly sedentary outside of your workouts is far from optimal. By walking regularly, you’re going to notice that you feel better. More energy, improved mood and more mental clarity. Walking is a great way to naturally reduce stress. It's a great way to clear the mind and allow the body to process stress from the day.

Appetite Control

You’re going to notice better appetite control. Unlike intense cardio, walking does not spike appetite. It seems to have a neutral effect on appetite and sometimes can modulate appetite. People find themselves easier to lose weight while walking because it is not as taxing on the body. There is less to recover from and it becomes more natural to lose weight while for people who do intense cardio; they tend to overeat to help mask the pain they feel in the body.

Clear Mind

A body in motion tends to stay in motion. By going out for a walk before school or work, both your mind and body go into a more active state of getting work done and processing information. While walking the brain processes information and helps clear out the mind allowing for more creativity and ideas to come into the mind. It helps release tension and extra stress.  

Aids Circulation and Nutrition

Do you ever eat food and then it feels like it stuck in your stomach like your bloated or it’s kind of hard to gain weight. Walking helps circulate the food around the body allowing it to digest. There’s a study that shows that participants who walk 15 minutes after they eat their meal have a easier to putting off gaining weight and have a easier time staying fit. The nutrients from the food gets circulated better providing proper nutrition to different areas of the body.

Challenge

I believe walking for 1-2 hours per day can have massive benefits. Getting in shape happens a lot faster and easier and staying in shape becomes way easier. As well, you feel a heck of a lot better when you’re walking for 1-2 hours per day. Walking can also be a great learning opportunity by connecting with a podcast / audiobook or becoming aware and clearing unwanted thoughts. It's as easy as going outside with a friend, classmate or family member and walking while talking. 

I challenge you to aim for 10k steps per day for a week and see what happens! You’re going to find that you get leaner, cleaner, easier; have an easy time hitting your calories and you’re going to feel a lot better… Walking is one of the most underrated activities to promote a lean body.

If you are looking to build a lean chiseled physique then click here to get a workout program tailored for you!