"Walk 6:40," Kailash Rajdev or Kalpesh Mehta send a group text to their buddies every weekday morning, like clockwork. The two Kolkata businessmen, now in their early 40s, had been so preoccupied with their jobs throughout their thirties that they hadn't given exercise a second consideration
With their individual businesses thriving, they turned their attention to their health a few years ago and discovered they had gained a significant amount of weight and wanted to do something about it. Despite flirting with the notion of going to the gym and running, the only exercise they get is a 30-40-minute morning stroll three to five days a week.
The fitness experts would have you believe that mobility is important. The emphasis on mobility and movement, however, is not new. It dates back to 1965, when a Japanese company introduced the pedometer and popularised the concept that walking 10,000 steps a day improves one's health. Yamasa Clock and Instrument Company produced the pedometer, which was known as Manpo-kei, which means "10,000 steps metre" in Japanese. Researchers from Harvard Medical School hypothesised that this is where the magic number of 10,000 steps originates from in a study published in 2019. "Although 10,000 steps per day is often marketed to having health advantages, there is no evidence to support this," researchers said in a separate study published in Lancet last month.
Researchers analysed 15 studies that covered the health and fitness of nearly 47,000 participants over a seven-year period for this study, which was published in the Lancet. They discovered that while "10,000 steps" is a myth, those who walk more steps have health advantages. Adults who walked more had a mortality risk that was reduced by 40% to 53%. They also discovered that taking more steps per day was linked to a decreased risk of all-cause death, however the effect varied with age. People aged 60 and older who walked around 6,000–8,000 steps per day had a decreased risk of death than adults younger than 60 who walked approximately 8,000–10,000 steps per day.
Whatever the situation may be, all fitness professionals and medical experts agree that being active throughout the day is essential for good health. However, rather than cramming all of your activity into a single, brief session, Gagan Arora, a Delhi-based trainer and creator of Kosmic Fitness, recommends being active throughout the day. "A step goal is only the starting point for daily wellness," he adds, adding that "this should be supplemented with 30-60 minutes of exercise."
The intensity, effort, and quality of steps count more than the distance walked, according to Bengaluru-based CrossFit instructor Kaustav Barua. He reminds out that "an aggressive 5km run will always have more health advantages than a leisurely 5km stroll." “Walking.
Kalpesh Mehta, 41, is a businessman from Kolkata. He says that he rarely ever finds time to work out, given his daily commute and long hours at work, but he tries to start his day with a morning walk. He uses a fitness tracker to keep count of the steps he takes, and he says that he feels better and happier whenever he can get his morning walk in. “I try to walk three to four times a week and I know that it won’t make me as agile as I used to be in my early 20s but it certainly makes me feel better and healthier about myself. I don’t care if I get the 10,000 steps goal or not as long as I can get the morning walk in,” he says.
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