As we are about to embark on a project which aims to get people to walk further, we thought that we should start to practice what we preach! A group of us have volunteered to share our experiences of walking 10,000 steps. Research shows that walking 10,000 steps a day can significantly improve your health. The plan is for each of us to use a pedometer for 2 days – on day 1 we should do our usual amount of walking and then on day 2 we see how easy or difficult it is to reach the 10,000 goal. The NHS website, suggests that the average person walks between 3000 and 4000 steps per day.
I volunteered to go first. The initial challenge I faced was selecting a pedometer. I wanted to know that I could trust the pedometer to be accurate in its recording. I considered using my iPhone but most of the pedometer apps don’t get fanastic reviews regarding their accuracy. In the end I found a cheapish and small pedometer on Amazon by Omron which had gained very good reviews.
Day 1 – Just slipping the pedometer onto my belt made me want to walk further so I had to consciously try to have a ‘normal’ day. It was actually a pretty lazy day: I took the bus as per usual to and from work which required only a little walking and then I popped out to buy some lunch. Other than that I though I was mostly inactive. I was surprised to see that by the end of the day I had reached 5000 steps.
Day 2 – I found that I really had to plan how I was going to reach the 10,000 mark. I knew I had places to be that evening so wanted to fit in a large proportion of my steps by lunchtime. I decided to walk the first section of my journey to work and simply jump on my usual bus at a later stop. I actually ended up walking the enitre 2.5 miles from home to work – once I started I kept thinking that I might as well carry on a little further. The 2.5 miles equated to around 4,700 steps. The main problem was that I was very sweaty when I arrived at the office. Luckily I had anticipated this so had brought a clean t-shirt with me. However, I also ended up washing most of my make-up off and hadn’t brought a make-up supply in with me.
I later made sure that I went for a good walk around town at lunchtime. I also walked for about 10 minutes on my route home. In total I happily reached 11,693 steps…
I was pleased to have surpassed my target but I’m not sure how often I would realistically motivate myself to walk all of the way to work. I think I would be more inclined to walk home after work for three reasons a) it doesn’t matter if i’m a little sweaty when I get home as I can just jump in the shower, b) on most days I have less time pressures in the evening and 3) the route home is downhill!
I found a further problem when I went to play Floorball (indoor hockey) on the evening of day 2 – my legs were rather tired and slow after all that walking! I guess this shows that the walking really did get my muscles working and I am sure I would feel the benefits if I could keep it up. Will this be motivation enough???
Our Journey into Designing a Walking App 