Study Shows: >10,000 Steps Daily is UNHEALTHY
Source: People's Daily, Glamour, Boxing Scene
The benefits of walking are numerous, such as anti-cancer, lowering blood pressure, delay joint aging, relieve osteoporosis, improve waist & shoulder pain, regulate sleep and even eliminate stress.
However, during the pursuit of fitness, it’s easy to stress the body too much.
A lot of people actually walk too much, which can be dangerous for their health. If a person walks too far, the result is actually counterproductive. Often, we joke and mention “Go Break a Leg”, however this is a reality that can actually happen.
In regards to this, studies show that walking 8,000 or less steps every day, is the optimal amount. More than this, will increase the risk for injury.
20,000 Steps – Knee Injury
Mrs. Yu from Zhejiang, an auntie over 50 years old, was walking every day, more around 20,000 steps. Quickly, she became popular in Chinese social media, for her efforts. However, six months after starting, she started to encounter a lot of knee pain.
After visiting the hospital, she was diagnosed with an excessive knee strain injury, which caused a fluid buildup in her knee. This wasn’t the only recorded case of a similar injury from this amount of steps either. Ms. Yang from Hangzhou also experienced stiff legs, and knee weakness, which resulted in serious knee damage.
30,000 Steps – Broken Legs
Mr. Lee, a 60 year old in China, walked around 30,000 steps every day, and a month later, experienced pain in his thigh and waist. At first, he believed it was a strain due to excessive walking. However, upon visiting the hospital, he found out his thigh was broken.
Even though 20,000 and 30,000 steps may seem to be an excessive amount, a lot of athletes and health advocates are doing it. It’s now obvious that these massive amounts are far beyond the needs of human exercise, and will most likely only provide long term injury.
Tips for Walking/Running Exercise
Get your arms pumping
Bring your upper body into your workout by pumping your arms. This is an easy way to burn more calories while walking.
If you want to tone up and use more arm muscle during your workout, try carrying 2 - 5 pound handweights.
Pumping your arms propels you forward and helps you move faster - which means more distance covered and more calories burned!
Build in incline intervals
Walking on an incline is one of the fastest ways to drastically skyrocket your calorie burn. But you don't have to spend your whole workout on an incline. Try building in 30 - 60 second intervals of incline walking on your treadmill every 5 to 10 minutes.
If you're walking outside and can't control your incline, try stopping every few minutes and doing 10 - 15 squats or lunges to tone your lower body.
Bonus Benefit: Building in intervals will also help your body continue to burn calories post-workout.
Increase your pace, not your stride
Got short legs? No problem! Instead of increasing your stride (and possibly pulling something), increase the number of steps you take.
This also increases your speed which means more distance covered and more calories burned.
Invest in a pair of excellent walking shoes
Walking in poor shoes can cause damage to your feet, knees, hips, joints and back. Wear poor shoes and you may not be walking for a long time!
If you want to feel great after a walking workout (and be ready for the next one tomorrow), make sure you have the best possible walking shoes you can afford.
A solid pair of walking shoes can actually help you lengthen the time that you walk, which again means more calories burned.
Take plenty of time to warm up and stretch to avoid injury
Walking is one of the best exercises you can do for stress relief and long term fat loss. However there's this little thing called shinsplints that can threaten to put you out of walking commission for a while.
Many walkers and runners struggle with this problem. This constant repetitive flexing of the shin muscle can create soreness when a walker increases their speed or distance.
To help ward off shin splints or other muscle injury, take plenty of time to warm up before you really get into your workout.
Also, make sure you stretch. Pointing and flexing your foot helps stretch and build the shin muscle. Ankle rotations also help with this. Stretching properly will definitely keep you happy and walking for a long time to come!
If you have any information or questions please leave a comment below.