Step Count and Quality of Life

Steps are kind of a big deal around here. Getting 8,000+ steps is one of the things I prioritize the most in my day to day movement and in that of anyone I train.

And I train all sorts of people. From teenagers to senior citizens, all levels of fitness, and with all sorts of different orthopedic issues or none at all. And if we talk for long enough, I will always ask about their step count. People generally are surprised at this because me being a strength and conditioning coach, there might be an assumption that we have bigger fish to fry.

We do not.

Personally, I have a moderately active job and exercise regularly but I still go out of my way to go for walks. One of the primary ways I do this is by replacing my very short commute with a walk to begin and end my work day every once in a while. Despite working at a gym with people of fitness levels ranging from normal to super-human, I tend to get a lot of surprised remarks at how I go out of my way to get steppin ‘. Let’s start to dive into why steps matter to me so much.

Sleep Quality and Recovery

This focus of mine can often be the most surprising to the hardcore exercisers I interact with. One of the great things about exercising at high intensity is that you get a lot of fitness in a very short amount of time and not a lot of repetitions, meaning not much wear and tear or soreness affecting the rest of your day. For the active individual, this is a great recipe for a healthy life. For what I call a sedentary exerciser, this tends to lead to a poorly recovered athlete who is stiff and puffy.

A focus on accumulating steps actually started for me when I began diving into sleep studies. I found that a common phenomenon among athletes in many sports as well as many members of the armed forces/first responders was that a poor night of sleep tended to follow a day with low non-exercise activity, usually measured via step count.

Oftentimes these were fit or extremely fit individuals who had high power output jobs/sports with long periods of sitting around for the rest of the day. Picture a sled dog doing a very intense 10 minute workout and then forcing it to sit behind a desk in a classroom the rest of the day and you get the idea. 
Researchers tried to answer questions around how to make these really fit individuals sleep better. The answer they found was: steps.

NEAT

AKA Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, this is one of the biggest factors affecting your total calories burnt in any day. NEAT is the amount of calories your body burns through daily activities that aren’t exercise. Even activities like sleeping, breathing, eating, cleaning, and fidgeting can account for a significant amount of these calories. 

Walking can add to that number significantly. And again the significant distinction here is that this is unrelated to our exercise. However this low level, low intensity movement when done consistently will benefit our ability to move at faster paces and higher level of intensity when we do exercise.

To give an example of the type of caloric burn we’re talking about, let’s compare stationary biking to walking. Stationary biking for one hour, three days a week will generally burn less calories than walking 10,000 steps seven days a week.

Lymphatic Flow

One of the most effective ways to keep your lymphatic system moving is through easy movement like walking. This matters because the lymphatic system is essentially the waste removal system of your body. Imagine a bunch of one-way valves going throughout your whole body that remove waste and you move things through those valves through muscle contractions.

So more steps = more flow which will help your body function more effectively and give a significant boost to your immune system. 

Imagine you had to go swimming in a body of water. Would you rather swim in a river that moves at a steady pace and therefore is clear enough to see through to the bottom, or a stagnant marsh where the water rarely moves and therefore is sludgy enough to where you can’t see below the surface?

Easy choice right? Walking keeps the river moving and keeps the lymphatic system flowing nicely.

Sun Exposure and Outdoor Time

Walking is a great way to get outside, one of the checkboxes on our Daily Checklist.

This allows us to get a good daily amount of sun exposure. What amount is appropriate varies a lot from place to place. If you’re going to be getting a good amount of steps, you’ll get enough sun to get the vitamin D that you need, which is great because Vitamin D does an absurd number of helpful things in the body such as supporting immune health, bone health, and a lot of other functions for general cellular health. That being said, check the UV index and if appropriate, slap on some sunscreen.

Exposure to nature also boosts our immune system, by exposing our body to biodiverse environments, causing our immune system to upregulate in response. Nature has also been shown to improve our mood and our cognition. 

Being outside is also great for your eye health. Our eyes were not meant to stay focused on flat objects a few feet from our face all day. They were meant to move around and change focus. 

A normal day in the life of our eyeballs used to involve needing to focus far away, focus up close quickly when needed, and track moving objects as well. By spending time outside and just appreciating what’s around you, you’re walking your eyes through a nice rehab routine which can improve how your eyes feel and function. It goes without saying but if it’s super bright out, bust out some shades.

Quiet Reflective Time or Time With Your People

Walking is prime time for either spending some quality time with your people or taking some quiet time to yourself. Either way, both of these things are great for your mental health.

Spending more time with people you care about is great for your mood and has actually been shown to help you live longer. If possible go for walks with your family, with your work team, whoever you want to be tighter with and it will eventually happen.

But walking by yourself is far from a waste of time. As a person who has a very social job, I find a solitary walk to be one of the most effective ways to unwind. Depending on how I’m feeling, it can be time to listen to a podcast, an audiobook, or on busier days just listen to the sound of the birds and the wind and give myself some time to reflect and process.

Figuring out what is best for you on any given day is a great part of the journey.

Less Sitting Time

Sitting a ton wrecks your health and mobility. From slowing down your metabolism to lowering brain activity or just plain making your muscles and soft tissues feel stiff, prolonged sitting is basically all negative. 

Not only does more steps mean less sitting, but walking also undoes a lot of the negative effects of sitting. Increased lymphatic flow, as discussed above, really helps decongest your muscles after sitting a lot. If you’ve ever had post road trip cankles, you know what I’m talking about.

Each step also takes you through a little range of motion that is the opposite of sitting in something like a car seat or on a couch. We take the knee behind the hip into extension and we load the ankle in both plantarflexion and dorsiflexion (pointing and pulling the toe, respectively) as well. Not only is all of that crucial range of motion for life, repeating it for many reps over the course of a walk really does help unglue stiff hips and legs from sitting.

Helps You Live Longer

Literal mountains of research shows that 8,000 steps gets you a 51% reduction in all cause mortality. This basically means that pick any cause of death you can think of, from falling off of a ladder to being poisoned and if you hit that 8,000 step count on average most days, you’re 51% less likely to die from it.

More steps bumps that number even higher but 8,000 steps is where you get the lion’s share of these benefits.

So go for a walk. It may save your life, and it will definitely improve the quality of it.