Why 10,000 Steps Is Probably The Wrong Target

it’s setting you up to fail - so let’s break the myth

For years, we've been told that 10,000 steps per day is the magic number.

It's become one of those accepted truths of modern life. Like drinking eight glasses of water, getting eight hours of sleep, or finally sorting out that drawer in the kitchen that's full of batteries, takeaway menus and mysterious keys that don't seem to fit anything anymore.

Everyone knows about 10,000 steps.

Or at least, everyone knows they're supposed to be doing them.

And if you're anything like me, you've probably had days where you glance at your step-count in the evening and discover you've only managed 2,700.

At which point the watch helpfully informs you that you're approximately 7,300 steps short of being a valuable member of society.

The strange thing is that most people never stop to ask where this famous number actually came from.

Was it the result of a huge scientific study?

Did a team of doctors spend years researching the perfect amount of daily walking?

Was 10,000 identified as the exact point at which the human body suddenly decides to become healthy?

Not exactly.

HERE’S WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

The story appears to begin in Japan during the 1960s, when a company launched one of the world's first commercial pedometers.

The device was called the Manpo-kei, which translates roughly as "10,000-step meter."

Now, I have to admire this, From a marketing perspective, it's genius.

They didn't call it the "6,437-Step Meter."

They didn't call it the "Somewhere Between 5,000 and 8,000 Depending on Your Age, Fitness Level and Overall Health Meter."

They picked a nice round number that sounded impressive, memorable and achievable.

And more than fifty years later, we're still talking about it.

To be clear, there's absolutely nothing wrong with walking 10,000 steps a day.If that's your routine, fantastic.

The problem begins when people treat it as a minimum requirement rather than an aspirational target.

Because if you're currently walking 2,000 or 3,000 steps a day, being told that you should immediately aim for 10,000 can feel a bit like deciding to learn the piano and being handed a concerto on your first lesson.

It's technically possible.

It's just not a great way to encourage participation.

Now, I've never been particularly fond of exercise targets invented by marketing departments.

If a number motivates you, wonderful.

But if a number makes you feel as though there's no point starting unless you can achieve perfection, then it's probably doing more harm than good.

WHY A HABIT ALWAYS BEATS A TARGET

And that's especially true for many people over fifty.

Perhaps you work from home.

Perhaps you're retired.

Perhaps you spend much of the day driving, sitting at a desk, or simply living in a world where almost everything can be delivered directly to your front door.

If that's the case, 10,000 steps can sound less like a health recommendation and more like a part-time job.

The irony is that modern research suggests some of the biggest health benefits occur long before you ever reach that famous number.

In fact, for many people, the obsession with step counts may be distracting them from something far more important.

Not hitting a target.

Building a habit.

Because the best walking programme isn't the one that earns a round of applause from your smartwatch.

It's the one you'll still be doing six months from now.

And that changes the conversation completely.

So, if 10,000 steps isn't some magical number, what does the research actually say?

The good news is that it's far less demanding than most people think.

Study after study suggests that the biggest health improvements happen when people move from being largely inactive to being moderately active.

In other words, if you're currently doing very little walking, you don't need to become a fitness fanatic to make a meaningful difference.

You simply need to do more than you're doing now.

And that's a much friendlier message.

Because let's be honest. If you're averaging 2,000 or 3,000 steps a day, being told to hit 10,000 can feel a bit like being told your first driving lesson should involve a lap of Silverstone.

It's not impossible.

It's just not where most people start.

In fact, many researchers now believe that the majority of the health benefits from walking are already available at step counts considerably lower than the famous 10,000.

Which means millions of people may be setting the bar far higher than it needs to be.

Personally, I've never been particularly interested in counting steps.

I understand why people do it. We all like numbers. Numbers feel objective. Numbers make us feel organised.

But I've always preferred measuring walking by time.

Most people know where they can find twenty minutes.

Most people know whether they can fit in half an hour.

And most people know what an hour feels like.

Ask someone how long a thirty-minute walk is and they'll tell you – it’s 30 minutes!.

Ask them how far 3000 steps is, and you'll usually get a blank stare.

So rather than obsessing about numbers, I prefer a much simpler approach.

Start with whatever feels manageable.

Ten minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

Twenty minutes.

Then build from there.

These days, I find an hour is about ideal.

It's enough time to get properly moving, listen to a couple of podcasts, clear my head, and spend some time outdoors. And without even thinking about it, it usually generates a healthy number of steps anyway.

But I didn't start there.

Very few people do.

The important thing isn't whether you walk for ten minutes or sixty.

The important thing is that you do it again tomorrow.

Because walking isn't really about hitting a number.

It's about building a habit.

And once that habit takes hold, something interesting starts to happen.

Your body begins adapting to it.

BUT IT’S NOT PROPER EXERCISE, IS IT?

One of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming that walking doesn't count as exercise.

After all, it's only walking.

You're not lifting weights.

You're not running a marathon.

You're not dangling upside down from a gym ceiling while somebody half your age shouts motivational slogans at you.

You're just walking.

But if you've been largely inactive for a while, your body may have a very different opinion.

The first few walks can be surprisingly uncomfortable.

Your feet might ache.

Your calves might complain.

Your hips may feel a little stiff.

Your lower back may register a formal protest.

And if you're over fifty, your knees will often take the opportunity to remind you that they're still there.

This is where many people conclude that walking isn't for them.

But in reality, what they're experiencing is something completely normal.

Their body is adapting.

Because walking is exercise.

In fact, if you're currently doing very little structured activity, a brisk walk may be one of the most useful forms of exercise you can do.

I sometimes compare it to training for a marathon.

Now before anyone panics, I'm not suggesting you actually run a marathon.

The comparison is simply this:

Nobody expects to run twenty-six miles on the first day.

You start small.

Your body adapts.

You gradually become capable of more.

Walking works in exactly the same way.

The first twenty-minute walk feels like effort.

A month later, it feels perfectly normal.

Eventually, what once felt like exercise simply becomes part of your day.

Your muscles get stronger.

Your balance improves.

Your stamina improves.

The little stabilising muscles that haven't been doing much lately quietly return to work.

Even your confidence grows.

You begin to trust your body a little more.

And perhaps most importantly, you stop thinking about walking as something you're forcing yourself to do.

It simply becomes something you do.

A HEALTHY ADDICTION

I've noticed another effect over the years.

The more I walk, the more I want to walk.

The fresh air feels good.

Being outside feels good.

Moving feels good.

What starts as an effort gradually becomes a pleasure.

And that's when the habit becomes sustainable.

Because sustainable exercise isn't the exercise you can force yourself to do for two weeks.

It's the exercise you actually miss when you don't do it.

Most people think of walking as a way to burn a few calories.

And yes, that's part of the story.

But in my view, some of the most important benefits have very little to do with weight loss.

Take your bones, for example.

Most people don't spend much time thinking about bone density until a doctor mentions it.

Yet as we get older, maintaining strong bones becomes increasingly important.

The good news is that bones respond to use.

Every walk is a small investment in future-you.

Then there are your joints.

Many people assume that if their joints feel stiff, the answer is to rest them.

Sometimes that's true.

But often, gentle movement is exactly what the body needs.

Walking helps keep everything moving in the way it was designed to move.

Balance is another benefit that rarely gets enough attention.

Most of us don't think much about balance until we lose a little of it.

Yet balance contributes enormously to independence and confidence as we get older.

Every walk provides countless tiny opportunities for your body to practise balance, coordination and stability without you even noticing.

And then there's the benefit that I personally enjoy the most.

Getting outside

I don't know exactly when modern life became something we mainly experience through windows, but many of us spend remarkable amounts of time indoors.

We sleep indoors.

We work indoors.

We relax indoors.

Then we wonder why we feel slightly disconnected from the world.

Walking has a wonderful way of breaking that cycle.

You notice the weather.

You notice the seasons changing.

You notice new shops opening, old shops closing, trees coming into leaf, and all the little details that normally rush past unnoticed.

You become part of your environment instead of merely observing it.

And here's something I've found repeatedly over the years.

The more time I spend outside, the more I want to spend outside.

The hardest part is often getting started.

After that, it begins to pull you back.

CHANGING YOUR MENTAL STATE

Finally, there's the mental side of walking.

Some of my best ideas have arrived halfway through a walk.

Problems seem smaller.

Decisions become clearer.

Thoughts that felt tangled somehow begin to organise themselves.

I've lost count of the number of times I've set out feeling mentally cluttered and returned feeling considerably better.

Not because I'd solved every problem.

But because I'd stopped staring at the same four walls while thinking about them.

One thing that's worth remembering is that not everyone starts from the same place.

When people talk about daily step counts, they often forget that some people accumulate movement almost automatically, while others have to create it deliberately.

Take a postman.
A courier.
A waiter.
A retail worker.
An Amazon warehouse employee.

These people can easily cover several miles during a normal working day without ever setting out for exercise.

Then there's the second group.

The office workers.

The remote workers.

The drivers.

The people who spend most of their day sitting at a desk, behind a steering wheel, or moving between one chair and another.

It's entirely possible for someone in this group to work hard all day, feel exhausted by the evening, and still have accumulated remarkably little movement.

That's one of the strange contradictions of modern life.

You can be mentally busy for twelve hours and physically inactive at the same time.

The challenge is that our bodies haven't really changed, even though our lifestyles have.

Thousands of years of human evolution prepared us to move regularly throughout the day.

Then, in the space of a few generations, we invented cars, computers, online shopping, food delivery apps and remote controls for practically everything.

Convenient? Absolutely.

Good for daily movement? Not so much.

The important thing is recognising which group you belong to.

Because if movement isn't built into your day, creating opportunities for it becomes increasingly important.

ANYWHERE, ANY TIME

Fortunately, that doesn't mean setting aside hours for exercise.

In fact, one of the easiest ways to walk more is to stop thinking of walking as exercise altogether.

One reason many people struggle to maintain a walking habit is that walking can feel a little... pointless.

You leave your house.

You walk around for half an hour.

You arrive back at exactly the same place.

Mission accomplished.

Or perhaps not.

For some people, that's perfectly enjoyable.

For others, it can feel suspiciously like exercise.

I've found that movement becomes much easier to maintain when it's woven into everyday life rather than treated as a separate activity.

I've never entirely trusted people who describe a six-mile uphill hike in freezing rain as fun.

I believe them.

I just don't understand them.

What I've found works much better is making walking useful.

Give it a purpose.
Give it a destination.
Give it a reason to exist beyond simply accumulating steps on a fitness tracker.

Instead of doing one giant supermarket shop every week, you might buy a small backpack and pick up a few items every couple of days.

The shopping gets done.

The walking gets done.

And you never have to wrestle a trolley the size of a small aircraft carrier through a crowded car park.

If you live in a town or city, walking can also become a surprisingly enjoyable form of exploration.

Most of us know the routes we drive.

Far fewer of us know the routes we walk.

Once you start moving around on foot, you begin discovering shortcuts, quiet streets, interesting buildings, little cafés, parks, and places you've somehow overlooked despite living nearby for years.

You start seeing your neighbourhood rather than simply passing through it.

A walk can also be a convenient excuse to listen to something.

A favourite podcast.
An audiobook.
A piece of music.
Or simply your own thoughts.

And the beauty of walking is that it combines effortlessly with almost anything else.

Need a loaf of bread?

Walk.

Fancy a coffee?

Walk.

Need to clear your head after a frustrating phone call?

Definitely walk.

The exercise becomes almost incidental. It's simply woven into the fabric of everyday life.

BITE-SIZE CHUNKS

And it's worth remembering that it doesn't have to happen all at once.

One of the biggest objections people raise is that they don't have an hour available for a walk.

Fair enough.

But very few people need to do it in one go.

I certainly don't.

Over the years, I've become quite good at spotting little walking opportunities wherever they appear.

If I'm early for an appointment, I'll walk around the block.
If I'm waiting for a train, I'll often walk the length of the platform rather than standing still.
If I'm riding by car, I'll park or have the Uber drop me a little further away and give myself a few extra minutes of movement at either end of the journey.

Ten minutes here.

Five minutes there.

Another ten minutes later on.

Individually, they don't seem like much.

But they soon add up.

And perhaps more importantly, they reinforce the habit of looking for opportunities to move rather than opportunities to remain seated.

BUT… PREPARE FOR SOME AMAZING UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES

Sometimes, if you're very lucky, it may even lead you to rethink other parts of your life as well.

Which is exactly what happened to me.

A few years ago, I stumbled across a discovery that completely changed the way I think about walking.

At the time, I owned cars and, like most people, I automatically drove almost everywhere.

Then one day, largely by accident, I started walking more often. And I began noticing something rather surprising.

Almost everything I actually needed was much closer than I thought.

The local shops.

The supermarket.

The train station.

The pharmacy.

The café.

One by one, I discovered that most of them were only fifteen or twenty minutes away on foot.

The more I walked, the more obvious it became.

Because driving had been my default for so long, I’d convinced myself that these places were driving distance, when in reality they were perfectly comfortable walking distance.

And that realisation started a chain reaction.

Gradually, I found myself driving less.

Then less again.

Then even less.

Before long, I reached a point where I realised I wasn't really using my cars enough to justify owning them.

So I did something that would have seemed completely ridiculous to my younger self.

I got rid of them.

Now, before anyone starts composing an angry email, I'm not suggesting everybody should do the same. Many people genuinely need a car.

But for me, giving mine up turned out to be unexpectedly liberating.

If I need to travel across the city, there are trains.

If I'm feeling lazy, there's Uber.

If I need a vehicle for a longer trip, I can rent one.

The rest of the time, I walk.

And here's the really surprising part.

What started as a way of getting a little more exercise ended up changing far more than that.

I spend less time sitting in traffic.

I spend a lot less money.

I spend less time worrying about insurance, maintenance, repairs, parking charges, road tax and all the other little expenses that seem to breed in the darkness whenever you own a vehicle.

Most importantly, I spend more time outside.

More time moving.

More time experiencing my city rather than merely travelling through it.

Walking stopped being exercise. It simply became part of life.

And that, I think, is the point.

The healthiest habits are rarely the ones that require constant effort.

They're the ones that become woven into your everyday routine so naturally that you stop thinking about them altogether.

I certainly didn't set out to redesign my lifestyle.

I just started walking a bit more.

But sometimes a small change has a habit of pulling other changes along behind it.

And every now and then, something as simple as putting one foot in front of the other can end up taking you much further than you expected.

SO, WHAT’S THE TRUTH?

Where does all this leave the famous 10,000-step target?

Well, perhaps the answer is that it's neither right nor wrong.

It's simply a number.

And numbers have a habit of becoming far more important than they deserve to be.

If chasing 10,000 steps motivates you, wonderful. Keep going.

But if that number feels intimidating, unrealistic, or simply one more thing to fail at, then feel free to let it go.

Because the truth is that your body doesn't care whether you've walked 4,000 steps or 10,000.

Your body cares that you've moved.

It cares that you've stood up.

It cares that you've gone outside.

It cares that you've done something today that you weren't doing yesterday.

Walking isn't a test.

It isn't a competition.

It isn't a punishment for what you ate last weekend.

It's one of the simplest and most natural things your body was designed to do.

So start where you are.

Walk for ten minutes.
Walk for twenty.
Walk around the block.
Walk to the shops.
Walk to buy a coffee.
Walk because you need a loaf of bread.
Walk because you need to clear your head.

The reason almost doesn't matter. What matters is building the habit.

Because once the habit takes hold, your subconscious mind takes over.

The walk becomes easier.

The body becomes stronger.

The mind becomes clearer.

And before long, you're no longer forcing yourself to do it.

You simply find yourself looking for opportunities to walk.

Not because you have to.

Because you want to.

And perhaps that's the real target.

Not 10,000 steps.

Not a particular distance.

Not even a particular amount of time.

Just reaching the point where walking becomes a normal, enjoyable part of your life.

Everything after that is a bonus.

Thanks for listening.

Take the Next Step

If this article has given you something to think about, you might like to spend another five minutes with the short audio session below.

It's a brief guided activation based on the principles of rapid hypnosis, designed to help you settle these ideas, clarify your thinking and begin translating intention into action.

Whether you decide to adopt a daily Walking Mindset or simply explore it further, the audio provides an opportunity to pause, reflect and mentally rehearse the kind of small, consistent decisions that often lead to lasting change.

Whenever you're ready, kick back and relax, and just press play (but not whilst driving!).

THANK YOU

Thanks for spending a little time with me today.

I'm Rick Smith, and you'll find many more articles, audio features and practical hypnotherapy programs throughout my website, all designed to help you live a healthier, calmer and more fulfilling life.

Feel free to explore while you're here, and if you'd like to hear about future articles and audio releases, check back regularly.

Until next time, take good care of yourself... and remember, it's not just about adding years to your life; it's about adding life to your years.