Beware of conflating correlation with causation. I have zero doubt that more walking, pedaling, or pool laps are beneficial, but we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that those who DO do activity CAN do activity. I.E., they likely tend to be healthier to begin with.
Great advice, Ben! I don't count my steps, and I have no desire to get one of those tracker things. I feel like I get more than enough by walking my dog and living in the city, where everything I need is basically walking distance. I also do heavy dumbbell stair climbs, which amounts to 864 steps total (3 sets of 288 steps with 35 lbs dbs). I do implore my clients to do some of the things you've mentioned though, because they are often working at their desk for too long on end!
Thank you for writing this. I strongly feel the step counting is massively overrated. I get that it’s an easy thing to get people to focus on but it rarely is the whole picture. Also for folks with busted joints (like myself) walking is really not the best form of low impact cardio.
Precisely! I get that for some people it is a good target, but you're probably better off aiming for X minutes of any form of structured exercise rather than Y number of steps.
I wish we also had information on the age groups these studies were conducted on. For instance, assessments for fall risks I assume is conducted on older populations, and I’m not sure how it can be extrapolated to 20-49 yo
Beware of conflating correlation with causation. I have zero doubt that more walking, pedaling, or pool laps are beneficial, but we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that those who DO do activity CAN do activity. I.E., they likely tend to be healthier to begin with.
Great advice, Ben! I don't count my steps, and I have no desire to get one of those tracker things. I feel like I get more than enough by walking my dog and living in the city, where everything I need is basically walking distance. I also do heavy dumbbell stair climbs, which amounts to 864 steps total (3 sets of 288 steps with 35 lbs dbs). I do implore my clients to do some of the things you've mentioned though, because they are often working at their desk for too long on end!
Thank you for writing this. I strongly feel the step counting is massively overrated. I get that it’s an easy thing to get people to focus on but it rarely is the whole picture. Also for folks with busted joints (like myself) walking is really not the best form of low impact cardio.
Precisely! I get that for some people it is a good target, but you're probably better off aiming for X minutes of any form of structured exercise rather than Y number of steps.
I wish we also had information on the age groups these studies were conducted on. For instance, assessments for fall risks I assume is conducted on older populations, and I’m not sure how it can be extrapolated to 20-49 yo