“Good luck!” reads the text from my editor that arrives at 7.53am. But I don’t need it. As personal challenges go, I’m not remotely intimidated by what’s on the agenda today. In the name of science, I have been tasked with hitting exactly 3,967 steps and making the most of every one. Easy.
If 3,967 steps a day seems precise, that is because it is. A study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology this week found it was the exact number at which the risk of dying from any cause started to reduce. Researchers found as few as 2,337 steps a day started to lessen the risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases.
I work out that 3,967 steps for me equates to approximately 2.74km (1.7 miles). It’s the equivalent of the length of the Humber Bridge or six and a half laps of a football pitch. It’s not much for a full day.
And yet many of us don’t find that doable. Friends confess there are days working from home when they simply don’t leave the house, while a colleague admits to a recent realisation: “Why on earth am I trying to find ways round walking, when it’s the best thing you could possibly do for yourself? Why am I desperately trying to park close to the entrance of the supermarket, when I can just park far away and walk?”
It’s a good question. Before I (literally and figuratively) take the first step, walk coach Joanna Hall explains that those small changes can have a genuine impact.
“Find your habit that works for you and piggyback some steps on to that,” she suggests. Hall is a sports scientist who teaches people to walk better – that is, strengthen their bodies and reduce aches and pains through better technique.
I think about my habits and decide I’m going to drink from a smaller coffee cup, which should mean getting out of my seat more often, adding valuable steps to my day.
One thing I learn almost immediately is that it is quite hard to gauge your step count without being glued to a pedometer. At 8am, I check my smartwatch to find I’ve already done a whopping 59 steps by going from my bed to the bathroom and then downstairs to the kitchen to make a coffee.
Showering, getting dressed and all the associated faffing contributes more than 400, while the process of preparing my breakfast adds roughly another 100 steps. I’m already 15% there and I’ve not even started my workday.
But throughout the morning as my step count climbs in small bursts of 35 when I go to the loo or make cups of coffee, I begin to see how 3,967 steps might not happen on its own.
Understandably, time commitments, lifestyle factors and disability can easily get in the way. More than a third of us work from home at least some of the time and even those who work from an office can end up glued to a desk.
But, Hall says, the good news is that stepping better can be more effective than doing more. “I have consistently found that actually individuals don’t necessarily need to increase the volume of steps that they’re doing, but changing how they execute their walking technique can be really, really profound.”
She recommends visualising walking out of the space behind you, instead of stepping into the space in front. This helps engage muscles in the posterior of the body, like glutes and back extensor muscles, which should also help improve our posture.
By lunchtime, I’ve clocked up 758 steps around the house and it’s clear I am going to need to go outside if I’m going to reach 3,967.
A good excuse arrives when I realise I’m out of oat milk, necessitating a trip to the shop. At 1km (0.6 miles), it’s just far enough to be a nuisance on a busy day, making it a journey many people would do by car – a fifth of journeys of less than a mile are made by car, Office for National Statistics figures show.
The 10-minute fast walk adds another 1,102 and on the way home I discover I have passed 2,337 steps, which means I’m now reducing my risk of cardiovascular diseases, according to the research.
In the early evening a lengthy voice note from a close friend – what I like to call a “personal podcast” – arrives. I put my shoes back on for a brisk walk while I listen.
Absorbed, I don’t notice that I’ve consumed virtually all of my remaining steps. In fact, I have barely left enough steps to get home, let alone get ready for bed. I make it back with eight steps to spare and I contemplate sleeping in the hallway before I remember the findings of the research: each increase of 1,000 steps a day is associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of dying from any cause. In fact, for those under 60, the sharpest improvement in health was seen in individuals taking between 7,000 and 13,000 daily steps.
Eventually, three steps away from bed I check my watch: 4,412. Not so easy after all.