10,000 Steps or Less?

In 1964, Japan hosted the Olympics for the first time. It was an opportunity to bask in national pride and showcase their rebuilding efforts after WWII. It also sparked increased interest in everyday fitness.

Riding the wave, the Yamasa Clock and Instrument Company introduced the Manpo-kei pedometer in 1965.

Manpo (万歩) has a joint meaning. 万 (man) means 10,000, and 歩 (po) means steps, while 計 (kei) translates to counter. If you look closely at the man character, you might notice it resembles a person walking.

Today, fitness influencers, wearable devices, and apps consider 10,000 steps per day as the ideal target, but here’s the catch – it was just marketing hype. 

So, what’s the ideal number?

Well, you might not like the answer, but here it goes…it depends.

Like most things in life, determining the right goal for you requires discernment. It depends on your age, overall health, and fitness goals, but many studies suggest that 7,000 to 8,000 steps might be a better goal. That said, if you’re preparing to walk the Camino de Santiago, 10,000 might be a better target.

On Friday, I attended a friend’s Positivity Summit. Given the New Year, many attendees wanted to improve their health and fitness, but I also felt their frustration with slick marketing, tantalizing clickbait headlines, podcasts, and snake-oil salespeople looking to sell them the latest hack.

For example, recently, I listened to The Dairy of a CEO podcast which included an episode titled “Triple Your Life Expectancy with These 3 Health Hacks!”

Sounds amazing, right? We are going to live forever, people!

Well, let’s start with this: I have no clue what my life expectancy is, and the science of predicting it is a little skimpy at the moment.  The guest did share some tips, but when discussing cold plunges, he said, “…there’s nothing, nothing, no amount of exercise, no type of cardiovascular or weight training that comes anywhere close to immersing yourself in cold water for 3 to 6 minutes in terms of what will strip fat off your body fast.”

While popular among wellness influencers, plunges lack strong evidence supporting all the claimed benefits—especially the fat-stripping one above. The hype primarily stems from a study from the Netherlands showing a 29% reduction in work absenteeism (so if your boss starts recommending them, look out), and those with cardiovascular risk factors should use caution, but this is rarely mentioned. 

I will say that it’s possible that science hasn’t caught up with the practice, and I can’t argue with how refreshing a cold shower feels or how it might enhance our “I can do hard things” self-narratives. So, if they’re your jam, awesome, but claiming that “they are all that and a bag of chips” is misleading.

As we head into 2025, I think we will need to pause, breathe, and reflect more to discern the wild ride we are facing as influencers, media, and content creators try to grab our attention with flashier, more extreme, non-fact-checked headlines. 

So, read, watch, and listen with care and walk your own path. You may wish to pack the boring, consistent basics of sleep, hydration, movement, strength, flexibility, gut health, mindfulness, gratitude, screen(less) time, and social connection in your backpack. These never go out of style. 

You can do it. We all can, with more discernment and by starting where our feet are at and taking it step by step, breath by breath, and day by day. 

And the good news is that it might be less than 10,000 steps before you can have fun storming the castle!

Michael.

 

Tomorrow (Jan 13th) is National Sticker Day, and I’m giving out 1,000 stickers as visual cues to help us remember some of the basics. If you want one, please click Sticker.

Finally, you might have seen my email from Friday. To support those impacted by the California fires, I’m offering a pop-up sale on my latest design, Choose Compassion. All the profits go to the California Fire Foundation—I don’t make a dime. If you can contribute and want to receive this limited-edition sweatshirt, please click Choose Compassion.