How To Reach 10,000 Steps a Day Without Leaving Your Apartment

Why 10000 steps?

According to a study, life expectancy only increases continuously up to 7500 steps per day.

More steps do not bring a further increase in life expectancy. So if you are satisfied with a statistical probability for a higher life expectancy, you can limit yourself to 7500 steps.

The problem with this study, however, is, that possible previous illnesses of the test persons were not taken into account. Also, weight and blood values were not continuously monitored, so the study does not provide any information on this.

It is evident to me, however, that 10000 steps have more significant health benefits than 7500 steps because more steps burn more calories, and less body weight leads to a general relief of the body.

The number 10000 is also more concise than 7500. The daily goal of most fitness trackers is not for nothing preset to 10000 steps. When I look at my Apple Watch at the end of the day and see that I have taken 10000 steps, it motivates me more than if I had only taken 7500 steps.

The difficulty to reach 10000 steps

Some days it is simply not possible for us to leave the house. When it is stormy and rainy, we stay in the house and do not take our daily walk or the walk to the supermarket.

Maybe you are a freelancer like me and work from home. It is often challenging to interrupt work long enough to take a long walk.

There are many days when a freelancer is tied to the house all day long because he or she is expecting calls or has to meet deadlines.

There are many reasons why we don't manage to get out of the house and take our 10000 steps outside every day.

You can try to come to terms with this, but if we pursue goals and miss them regularly, it causes us to be in a bad mood, which in turn damages our motivation and productivity.

So we need a plan B if we cannot leave the house.

Walk 10000 steps a day inside the apartment

To walk 10000 steps or the equivalent of about 5.7 miles a day in one's apartment seems absurd at first. Who can imagine walking up and down for hours in one room or through the whole apartment?

It will probably surprise you if I tell you that you only have to walk for about sixty minutes a day to reach 10000 steps. One hour - suddenly, that doesn't sound so impossible anymore.

If you doubt that you can do 10,000 steps in less than an hour, get up and walk at your average pace. You will find that you can do three steps in one second without going very fast.

You can do 180 steps in one minute, 1800 steps in ten minutes, and 10800 steps in an hour. So you can get the 10,000 in less than an hour.

Now you might object that even an hour of stupid walking around in your small apartment doesn't sound very exciting. Of course, you are right, because I wouldn't want to walk around my apartment for an hour every day in one piece either.

But who says that you have to do your sixty minutes in a row? In fact, it would be wrong if you did all the steps at once and sat motionless in front of your computer for the rest of the day.

A scientific study from Australia proves that every hour we sit in costs 21.8 minutes of life.

Smoking a cigarette, on the other hand, only shortens our life by about eleven minutes.

The worst thing is that this effect is irreversible and cannot be compensated for. If we sit for an hour without getting up, the 21.8 minutes are irretrievably gone, no matter whether we exercise or go for a walk for the rest of the day.

So it is much better to spread our 10000-step goal over the day.

Let's do the math:

If we plan a walking phase before work and then work for eight hours, getting up and walking once every hour, we can complete our 10,000 steps in eight intervals.

We would then only have to walk 1250 steps in a row each time. That corresponds to just under seven minutes.

Since a ten-minute screen break is recommended every hour anyway, we can comfortably work on our 10,000-step goal during this time and even have time to get a coffee or go to the toilet.

Of course, you can also take a three-and-a-half-minute walking break every half hour instead if you want to get up more often or walk fewer steps in a row. However you do it - it is good for you and your health, but above all, it is easy to do.

Conclusion

Ten thousand steps a day are also easy to do in the apartment. No one has to forego the health benefits of regular exercise just because they cannot or do not want to leave the house.