But is 10,000 steps a day really all you need to stay healthy?

While 10,000 steps can be a great starting point for increasing activity—and it might be enough for someone in poor health—it’s just not enough to meet the fitness needs of a generally healthy person. To be truly well-rounded and healthy, you need to regularly elevate your heart rate and incorporate strength training into your routine.

The Origin of the 10,000-Step Myth

It’s important to understand where an idea came from to grasp why or how it became so widely accepted. The 10,000-step goal dates back to the 1960s, when a Japanese pedometer company, Tamasa, coined the term “manpo-kei,” which means “10,000 step meter.” This arbitrary number was decided as a marketing strategy—not based on any scientific evidence.

This is something we see all the time in health and fitness: when there’s profit to be made and marketing dollars behind an idea, a company will spend endlessly to expose us to it until we’ve heard it so many times, we believe it to be true.

Steps Alone Don’t Equal Fitness

Walking 10,000 steps per day is a great way to stay active and maintain a baseline level of activity, especially for those who live a more sedentary lifestyle. However, it’s simply not enough. The key word here is “minimum”—it helps establish a minimum baseline of activity, which isn’t enough to improve your overall health.

Key Considerations:

• Walking is Low Intensity: Unless you’re walking briskly or uphill, it’s unlikely to elevate your heart rate enough to improve cardiovascular fitness. If you’re wearing a fitness watch and still hitting zone 1 while walking, or just barely grazing zone 2, it’s not enough. You need to hit those upper limits to actually make improvements to your cardiovascular health.

• Limited Muscle Engagement: Walking primarily engages your lower body muscles, leaving your upper body entirely untapped. Your upper body muscles are just as important for maintaining and improving overall strength and metabolism.

The Importance of Elevating Your Heart Rate

Cardiovascular health is one of the most important indicators of overall health, and there’s only one way to improve it: you need to elevate your heart rate regularly. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, each week. To understand exactly what this means for you check out my article on Heart Rate Zones.  This, however, is for the average person. If you want to exceed average health, you’re probably going to need to go above and beyond this.

Why Your Heart Rate Matters:

• Cardiovascular Benefits: If you want to live a long, healthy, independent life, having a strong heart and lungs is critical. Not only that, but good cardiovascular health improves circulation and reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke.

• Caloric Burn: If you’re like me and you love food—or maybe you’re looking to shed some pounds—higher-intensity cardio burns more calories in a shorter period, which helps with weight management and fat loss.

• Improved Endurance: Improving your stamina and energy levels makes daily activities easier, which becomes more critical as you age. Plus, if there’s ever a zombie apocalypse, you don’t want to be the slowest person! The way to improve endurance is by challenging it.

Strength Training: The Missing Piece

In addition to cardiovascular exercise and elevating your heart rate, strength training is absolutely essential for a well-rounded fitness regimen. As we age, everything, including our muscles and bones, begins to deteriorate. Without muscle or bone density, we lose our mobility, which ultimately takes away our independence. The best way to manage this is by strength training.

Benefits of Strength Training:

• Muscle Growth and Maintenance: Strength training helps build and maintain muscle mass, which is essential for increasing metabolism and overall physical function. You’re not going to turn into the Hulk overnight unless you’re eating, training, and have the hormones to support packing on significant muscle mass. Many of us have been trying to bulk for years, and it’s laughable how difficult it is to naturally pack on muscle.

• Bone Density: Strength training improves bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and fractures as you age. This is especially important for women.

• Enhanced Physical Fitness: Besides living a longer, more independent life, strengthening your muscles enhances your ability to perform everyday activities, reduces the risk of injury, and improves balance and coordination. If you don’t want to be in pain all the time from endless injuries, strength training is your pal.

Combine Cardio and Strength Training for Optimal Health

So, you wanna reach the pinnacle of health—or at least increase the odds of living a more pain-free life? You’re going to want to combine cardio and strength training. This combination helps reduce body fat, enhance muscle mass, improve flexibility, and overall fitness. It allows you to do more, for longer.

Suggested Routine:

• Cardio: Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity cardio each week. Activities like running, cycling, swimming, or HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) are great options.

• Strength Training: Incorporate two to three days of strength training into your weekly routine. Focus on compound movements like squats, deadlifts, push-ups, and rows, which engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously.

Personally, I try to do cardio at least 3 times a week and strength train 3-4 times a week. I like variety and try to keep things fun, so I do a combination of all sorts of cardio, including biking, snowboarding, running, cross-country skiing, etc. This way, it feels less monotonous than simply hitting the treadmill at the busy gym.

My weight routine is a split of back and biceps one day, shoulders the next, chest and triceps the following day, and then a total leg day. I always incorporate progressive overload, so I’m doing a little more each time.

Conclusion: Moving Beyond the 10,000 Steps

While there’s absolutely no downside to getting in your 10,000 steps per day, it simply shouldn’t be the endpoint of your fitness journey. To truly reap the benefits of exercise, make sure you’re doing activities that elevate your heart rate and build your strength.

By doing so, you’ll not only improve your cardiovascular health but also increase muscle mass, bone density, and boost your overall well-being as well!

Sources:

1. American Heart Association. “Recommendations for Physical Activity in Adults.” AHA, 2022.
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “How Much Physical Activity Do Adults Need?” CDC, 2022.
3. National Osteoporosis Foundation. “Exercise for Strong Bones.” NOF, 2023.