Moving your body around is a great way to maintain prime physical health – whether it be getting a good workout in at the gym, a long walk after work hours, or a slightly shorter combination of the two.
For the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on walking to optimize your health. Many advisors in the field say $10k steps a day is a good goal to adhere to, and we’d have to agree. But that number sounds daunting.. Is it even possible to achieve?
The answer is yes. With the right motivation and the small tweaks to your daily schedule, you can easily get to 10,000. Adopt some of our favorite recommendations below, and you’ll be viewing your fitness tracker with high numbers in no time.
Take Your Dog for a Walk
Our furry friends love the outdoors, so why not skip along down the street and around the neighborhood with them once a day? Early morning or early evening is fine, they don’t care when you do it (as long as it’s not super hot out).
If you don’t have a puppy pal, ask a friend that does. Go together as a lil squad. The more company, the better!
Schedule Some Walks While at Work
Do you have a morning break? What about a lunch hour? Get up from your seat or walk away from your workstation. With 15-30 minutes, you’re bound to get some steps in if you schedule them. After a few weeks, it’ll automatically be ingrained and become routine.
Create a “Loop System” in Your House
This may be the oddest of the recommendations we present you with, but it’s an effective strategy you can adopt no matter how small or large your house is.
Create a “loop system” somewhere inside your house. For some of us, it works great circling the kitchen and living room, because of the open floor plans we created. For you, it might be easy to establish a loop outside of your house, in your basement, or around the bedrooms.
Park Your Car Farther Away From the Entrance
If you have errands to run, groceries to buy, and stores to visit, park your car far. Walking from the back of the parking lot to the front of the building can easily clock a couple hundred steps. And if you’re doing it everywhere you go, the numbers will easily tally up without you putting in any additional effort.
Make Multiple Trips From the Car to Your House
Connecting this suggestion to the previous one, make multiple trips.
Instead of piling grocery bags up your forearm and inevitably struggling to walk up your front steps, simply divide the trips up. Your arms will thank you – and so will your step count.
Try the Every-Hour-on-the-Hour Rule
Now, this tip can be comprehended differently depending on how you look at the rule. For us, we like to say get up and move – every hour on the hour.
What does that look like? It can be different for everyone. But our go-to guide is to walk for 5 minutes every hour (unless you’re currently in a meeting or on a call). If you can’t really step away from your desk often, do it every other hour. But these little minute increments will get you closer towards your goal than not walking at all.
Swap Emailing/Texting a Co-Worker for an In-Person Office Visit
This is not easily adoptable if you work remote – but if you’re in the office, don’t email or text a colleague. Instead, get up and walk on over to their office.
Or to go wherever they’re at. If it’s a vocational shop, get an answer to your question by seeing them face-to-face. These 30-second walks can add up throughout your day.
Ask a Buddy to Join You
Adopting an accountability partner will keep you moving. You feel obligated to show up for the walk that you invited them on. Plus, it’s a great way to pass the time, catch up, and charge your social battery.