Pedometers
A lot has been asked and said about pedometers so I have done a little digging about the benefits of stepping out with pedometers?
The benefits of exercise are well known.
The quantity of exercise necessary to accrue these benefits is also well known. There are two national recommendations to choose from. First, the Surgeon General recommends 30 minutes or more of moderate-intensity physical activity on five or more days per week to improve health and fitness. You can accumulate it in 10- to 15-minute bouts throughout the day or do it all at once. "Moderate intensity" physical activity means you feel warm and slightly out of breath when you do it. And second, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends a more formal, workout prescription of 20-60 minutes of continuous activity, three to five times a week (at 60-90% of maximum heart rate reserve) and two to three days of resistance training.
Thirty minutes of exercise is good for you, but objective measurement of how much activity you actually do can be elusive.
Pedometers provide objective measurement of physical activity and are one potential remedy to the problem of inaccurate activity recall. They can also be fun!
The precise number of steps per day necessary for health and fitness is unknown. Ten thousand steps per day is the popular recommendation, and there is accumulating evidence that this number of steps is associated with health benefits but it may not be appropriate for everyone (children, older adults, and individuals with chronic diseases). As for meeting the Surgeon General and ACSM guidelines by accumulating 10,000 steps per day, research suggests that the chances are good but it is not a guarantee. Until we know more it's reasonable to shoot for 10,000 steps per day if you are a healthy adult.
Next discussion..which one?
