We Like to Move It Move It! 6 Easy Tips to Increase Your Step Count

How Much Do You Walk Throughout The Day?

I want you to look at your phone, right now… almost every phone is able to track our steps, whether we know it or not. Go to your health app and have a little look at your daily steps (I’ll wait). What’s the number showing? Perhaps a few thousand, 2000 or 4000, maybe you have a very active job and are pushing 20,000?

Admittedly, phone step counters aren’t the most accurate… they can only show how many steps you did with your phone actually on you but it can give a good idea of our basic activity level.

The recommended number of daily steps is 10,000. If you’re currently just getting a few thousand, that number can seem a little daunting so instead of aiming for the ‘recommended’, I suggest you increase by 1000 to start. If you’re average step count is currently 4000, try to get 5000 for the next week or so, then 6000, 7000 the next week and so on.

Why Increase Steps?

Don’t underestimate the power of a good walk! Walking is not only beneficial to our cardiovascular health, improving heart and lung health; it’s also really good for mental clarity. Taking a walk has been a proven to be a great stress reliever and helps improve concentration by producing feel good hormones. If that’s not enough to convince you, maybe the research showing that adding a few thousand extra steps could be enough to lose the last 5 pounds is?

Top Tips

Making small lifestyle changes can really help get in more steps without feeling like tone of extra work. Here are my top tips.

1. Create mini goals. You don’t have to reach your goal in one go, in one walk. See how many steps it takes to go around the block by your house for example. Use a fitness tracker to help you keep on top of steps throughout the day or simply add reminders into your phone to remind you to move.
2. Walking breaks. If you sit at a desk or in front of a screen for most of the day chances are your step count is pretty low. Aim to take a few walking breaks throughout the day, even if it’s jus 3-5 minutes to walk around and stretch out.
3. Transport…

a. Park further away or ditch the car entirely. Whether you’re going to work or taking a shopping trip, park at the far end of the car park so you have to walk a little further to and from. If you’re only going to a local shop, leave the car behind entirely!

b. Get off a stop or two early. For those of you who take public transport, why not get of a stop or two before so you have an extra 10 minutes of walking to do.

4. Take the stairs. An obvious, yet still often overlooked tip is to simply skip the lift or escalator and take the stairs where possible. It’s a no brainer but a blog about increasing your steps wouldn’t be complete without it. If you have to take the escalator, don’t just stand there… climb!
5. Take in the shopping one bag at a time. Going back and forth a few times is better than loading it all on you in one go. Your back wins, your arms win, your step counter wins.
6. Multi task! It’s so easy to walk around the house while talking on the phone… may as well get a few steps in while you gossip away. Walk and brush your teeth… we are recommended to brush our teeth for 2-3 minutes, if we paced a little that’s an easy 100 steps.

These are just a small number of ways to increase those steps without much effort and fuss. If you have any strategies or tips you use to increase your average steps per day, I’d love to hear in the comments below!

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