How to make more steps per day? It’s no secret that walking is incredibly important for your overall health. You and I all agree that the importance of walking for health and fitness are well-known and documented. Yet many of us struggle to reach even a minimum number of steps required per day to maintain basic health, stay active, get good shape and improve our fitness levels.
Making more steps every day can help you reach your health goals and stay active. Increasing your daily steps can be done with a few simple changes to your daily routine. These changes can include walking to work, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and parking farther away from the entrance when you go shopping.
But that is not enough to sneak in more steps in a day if you have set a goal to log in a higher step count every day. How do you go about to take 12000 steps a day if that is your daily step goals? What are the best tricks for getting 10,000 steps a day while at home or working in the office?
We will answer all these mind-blowing question shortly. Just keep reading.
Try this : Free online steps to calories calculator.
Why take more steps, anyway?
What really makes you wanting to find more ways to reach higher step counts per day? Many research works have warned against the danger of sitting too long or living a sedentary lifestyle. Low activity can permanently compromise your heart health and metabolism to risking earlier death.
But even if you’re doing the recommended amount of exercise according to health groups like U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it is likely you might still suffer health risks associated with too much sitting[source].
More than ever, many studies have walked against the overweight that is catching up with every American adult. Walking workouts could limit this frightful obesity data coming from United States.
Why increase your steps per day?
Getting a good number of steps everyday confers plenty of advantages. Here are few benefits of walking more steps per day.
- Burn more calories: You burn more calories per step you walk. This makes all the difference if you want to lose weight.
- Warm up exercises: Increasing your number of steps keep you fit and active before exercises. Marathon runners walk more steps to stay active, ahead of a competition
- Stay healthy: Walking is basic natural exercise to maintain basic health and body shape
- Improves fitness level: Making more steps improves your fitness level. Gym workout alone is not enough
- Quick recovery: Walking is a physical therapy exercise for rehabilitation. More steps walking aid in quick recovery from injuries, and pains.
- Strengthen muscles: Muscles builds, and make lower muscles around thighs, hips, legs and feet stronger.
- Cost effective exercise.: Not everyone can afford a gym membership or buy those bulky cardio exercise machines to keep fit at home. Walking cost no money, yet it offers many positive impact on your health.
- Walking help you improve cardiac rhythm, reduces cravings, improves concentration, eases stress, and regulates your sleep/wake cycle.
- Research has emphasized that 10 minute brisk walking can boost your mood than sitting.
- Prolongs your life. Longevity benefits increased with more steps. A health journal has suggested that older women who walked 4400 to7500 steps per day more likely lived longer than those who take less than 400 steps each day.
Dr. Ashton notes in the book – The Self-Care Solution: A Year of Becoming Happier, Healthier, and Fitter – “I’ve always been an energetic person, but when I started moving more and sitting less, the extra activity boosted my energy levels by at least 25 percent. At the same time, I felt calmer, like walking was a type of movement meditation.”
Read More: Dangerous health risks of excess body fat
Download how to log in more steps per day free cheat sheet.pdf
how to get more steps in a day at home?
If you are a stay at home mum and have a weight loss goal to attain, what are the creative ways to get your steps increased and burn more calories? You might be making the average steps per day for a woman, but is that enough to get you to slim a pound of flesh from your tummy in 1 week?
As a man, I also need to stay fit while at home. How can I get 10000 steps without leaving the house? Let us go check possible and easy ways to sneak in more steps each day, that you need.
Take the stair to upper floors
If your apartment is higher up the building, don’t go for the lift. Taking the stair case up is one of the more ways to reach your step goals. Don’t use elevators if your office is somewhere around the second and third floor. Carrying yourself up by the elevator or escalator, makes you work so hard to lift your weight against gravity and that burns more calories with every extra step you make.
Explore and take more route in your neighborhood.
I understand many Americans are workaholics and don’t have spare time for themselves. If you got the time, especially on weekends, find ways to increase your steps by walking from one place to another in your neighborhood. There many nearby scenic routes that would keep you explore your environment. Walking on them might be like leisure, but helps you to sneak in more steps, break a sweat and burn more calories.
Run errands yourself
One easy way to get you to 10 steps in a day, is to walk at home while doing errands. You want to pick stuff from outside, or from inside the house, don’t send someone. Stroll, and go pick it up yourself.
Moreover, some house chores, like vacuuming the house for 15 to 20 minutes can boost your step counts each day by 1,500 steps. Some housework like mopping can add about 85 steps, scrubbing may cause you to make up to 120 steps and window cleaning alone can give extra 50-80 steps per minute.
Walk to the grocery store:
If you run out of kitchen items, or food, walk to a faraway grocery store instead of driving. Walk to buy in a store that is over a mile far, and walk back home after shopping. One of the little-known ways to long up extra 4k steps each day, is to walk back to the grocery store to return the chopping cart or basket.
If the store is half a mile away and you walk to buy, return home and go back to return the car, then come back home, that makes 4 journeys. Total distance traveled is 4 x 0.5 miles which is 2 miles distance you just covered.
How many steps are in a 2 mile? That is roughly 4000 to 5000 steps at moderate to brisk pace. Walking for grocery shopping in 10 minutes can give you an additional 500 to 1000 steps.
Walk a dog
By dog walking, you might walk 1000 steps per hour. If you don’t have a pet dog at home, adopt or buy one. A dog at home is the best excuse to go out for a walk. Even if you don’t wanna walk for yourself, walk for the dog, because it needs to keep healthy and happy. A solo walk is quite boring and a dog can be the best friend you keep you company when walking around outside. You’ll be surprised at the number of miles you can actually walk with a dog.
Walk on your home treadmill
The recommended time to exercise is 30 minutes to stay active and get a good heart health. You can do more than that. If you desperately wanna long up to 12k to 20k steps each day walk on a treadmill 3 times before bedtime. You can walk 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the evening, and 30 minutes just before sleep time. With just 30-minute treadmill walking, you might walk 1000 steps per hour at your slowest pace.
Dance your steps out.
Another interesting way how to add, if not double up your daily steps at home, is to dance yourself out. You can long in many mighty steps dancing your favorite song or music. Convert and download YouTube video songs as you like. A slow dancing can boost your daily steps by 55 steps, while fast dancing double it up to 100 to 150 steps per minute.
How do you think you’re gonna get 20000 steps in a day, while you live in a tiny, dingy sitting bedroom? Dancing is the best way to increase your steps, especially when you are in a small, compact space.
But, does dancing count as steps? I don’t doubt it. Dancing is the best way to rack up those steps faster at home, and burn more calories. It All you need is to put in your killer playlist.
Other Excellent ways how to double up your steps at home.
- Walk to your room while you wait for your food to cook
- When talking with someone on phone, walk around
- Walk around and tidy up the house, if your home is cluttered.
- Take a walk after dinner: Go for a walk after dinner with your family or a neighbors.
- Accompany and walk your kids to school that is nearby.
- Play with kids running around your home, yard, or neighborhood.
- Take extra outdoor trips like a solo hike into the jungle. In fact, Walk outdoor frequently
- Mow the lawn, vacuum cleaning your bathrooms adds your step counts each day
- Take a post meal walk
- Leave your water bottle at the kitchen and walk to it when you need to drink.
- Walk a dog around your house or neighborhood
- Walk outdoor frequently
- Walk while talking over the phone or face to face with someone. Don’t just stand.
- Take stair case up, if you live in higher floor.
- Play sport with neighbors even if they are kids
- Walk as warm up, to the gym
- get up and stroll around the house during TV commercials, or TV shows.
- Hide your TV remote control. walk to the TV to change channels.
Read : How long does it take to walk 5 miles?
How to make more steps every day in the office
There are also some tips on how to log in kore steps if your work place is an office. If you are doing some kind of desk job which requires you sit down, you may drastically limit your walking steps each day. How can I get up to 10000 steps if I sit at an office desk all day? Here is how you can get 10000 steps per day at the office.
Park far off from your office
You want to make extra steps on your way to the workplace, park your car on the lot, further away from office and walk to work. You don’t have to drive to the office parking lot. You can park your car far away and walk for 10-15 minutes to work. That would likely give 1000 to 1500 steps.
Just the few minutes of walking to your office, is enough to squeeze some steps out of your feet to burn some calories. You walking just 100 steps into your office is enough to get you close to completing your daily fitness walking goals. Also park far away, and walk into the bank or fast food stop instead.
Take public transport
One perfect way to increase your step counts each day and stay in good shape, is to take passenger transport car. You know, your car drives you very close to your destination, a public transport doesn’t.
From where a train or bus stops, you can walk to your apartment or to your office. A clever way is to get off the bus earlier and walk for 5 to 10 minutes to your workplace. Some active people get off the bus one or two stops early or before your usual bus stop.
On average, a 10 to 15-minute walk to the office can long your daily step goals by up to 1500 steps.
Walk around during lunch
If you usually have a busy work day, walking around to the farthest coffee shop or restaurant for lunch is a creative strategy how to walk at least 2,000 more steps a day. You can spend 15 to 30 minutes walking during lunchtime which can add you up to 3,000 steps. This step count is enough for you to burn more calories and maintain a healthy body weight.
This is what office clerks, engineers with busy schedules do to get an active break time. Ordering your lunch to be delivered to the workplace will make you lazier. Remember, walking reduces the inherent health risks of sitting still (in one place).
Walk on an office treadmill desk
While you serve clients, or check your business reports, walk on the treadmill desk while working. This method is far best way to make busy employees keep fit, in perfect shape while working.
Some corporate business has a company gym fitted with fitness, stress releasing and relaxation equipment. If there is a treadmill in the corporate gym, go walk on it for 10-15 minutes during break or immediately after work.
Walk while talking phone to clients
Making or taking business calls while walking around your office. You can even keep your phone far off, and walk to it when you receive or want to make an important call.
In your office, sitting for long hours is not good for your overall health and employee performance. It can lead to overweight and poor productivity. So, make sure you always get up to walk around and sneak in some steps when making or receiving commercial phone calls.
Walk to the copy machine.
You will actual be limiting your opportunity to make more steps per day if you leave your copy machine by your desk. Keep your printer away from your desk and walk to it.
Walk during business meetings
Walk and chat together with your co-workers during short business meetings, don’t just sit. Again, instead of calling, texting, or sending an email to a colleague, walk to the co-worker’s office and talk her in person.
Few days before I wrote this article, I discussed some of these tips with my friend who has a job in an office. Squeeze out some steps from your feet and move round the office hall while discussing business issues.
To help make up more steps for your 10k daily step goals, go to meetings earlier and keep strolling the room while waiting for meetings to start.
More on how to get more steps in a day at the office
We have seen some creative ways to get your steps in the bureau. There are still some less usual ways to get more than the recommended steps per day, right from your office.
- use the rest room, or bathroom further away from your office.
- Walk to the water fountain across the building
- Walk to pick your suitcase
- While working, walk on a treadmill desk
- Take the stair case or escalators if your office is in the higher floors
Read: How long does it take to walk 10 miles on treadmill?
How to make more steps during weekends?
To get more steps and reach your fitness goals, the weekend is a perfect time for very busy businessmen and employees.
- Explore or tour your city to distract or entertain yourself.
- Visit historical or touristic sites. The ones that is 5 to 10 kilometers away are preferable. You might just be able to log in kore footsteps walking 1to 2 miles from home.
- Go to parks, take solo trails even once a month in the weekends.
- Walk to a nightclub, or a snack bar nearby, only to get fun with friends and neighbors
- Join some walking events in your community. Search for local clubs and fitness fans. Meet People with sedentary life, walking is the most recommended exercise for them.
- Go for hiking, at the back county or nearby jungle.
- go for higher-step exercises during weekends. You can do rope-jump, squat and lunges and more.
- Walk while you wait for someone, something. Walk while waiting to preheating oven, waiting for a friend to come meet you. All these will boost your step count.
- Explores the farmer’s market around your neighborhood. While it indirectly helps the local business, it adds extra steps to your fitness step counts. Don’t walk only to grocery stores, walk down the aisles of your local market to maximize your step count.
How to set daily walking steps goals
Taking more steps throughout the day can help promote a healthier lifestyle. You won’t make any progress taking more steps each day without a concrete goal set.
The best way to get motivated to log in more steps, is to a new step count goal every day. My favorite strategy is to
- Set just 200 more steps of walking today than yesterday
- program 250 more walking steps tomorrow than I walked today.
- Set 300 extra walking steps the next day than tomorrow.
Don’t set an over ambitious goal. A huge step count goal per day tends to backfire. The overall secrete is to be doing just a bit more steps each day.
You can walk uphill or stair case or join a community of walkers to make it fun, challenging, while still having a realistic goal.”
Read: The 5 benefits of incline treadmill walking
How to track Your Daily Steps?
You want to keep record of how many steps you make each day, each week right? It is not a weakness to count every step you walk or run. At least, counting your steps tells you how much you are pushing to achieve your fitness goals and helps you track progress and as more steps accumulate. How do you know when you have added extra 2000 steps to your daily walk? How do you know that you have made a total of 10,000 steps per day, when the day is over?
Tools to track your steps
- Pedometer or fitness tracker
- activity monitor – fitbit smartwatch
- a step counter watch with GPS,
- or install a step tracker app on your smart phone
Always choose the tool that makes monitoring your steps convenient. Go for a pedometer, or activity monitor or just install a pedometer app in your phone.
Tips: How to get started walking more steps per day
#1 Get a good pair of walking shoes.
Never ignore the impact of walking on a comfortable shoe. Good walking shoes reduce impact on every step and make it easier to make more steps. Avoid minimalist shoes on pavement, because you might end up with painful feet. Also select shoes that are easy on foot if you have bunions.
#2 set step goals
Set your daily walking goals and make sure you achieve them before bedtime. Set a goal to count your steps every hour, every day, every week and every month. Keep a record of all the recording of your pedometer app. It can tell more about your walking, health and fitness levels.
$3 set reminders, alarm, and calender
Set reminders and alarms to start moving. Long hours or periods of sitting can increase your risk for heart failure, overweight and diabetes. Set an alarm to remind when you have made over 2 hours setting. When the alarm rings, get up and make a 5-minute walk. These can counteract any potential negative health risk. Your phone or smartwatch have calendars and alarms. Use it.
#4 walk with friends
Form workplace walking groups with your friends and co-workers. That is great to motivate you walk during break and after work.
#5 walk after meals
Make it a routine to walk after dinner and early in the morning. 10-15 minutes walking is enough to meet your daily step count goal.
#6 Start your walk slowly.
A beginner would not just get up and walk 10k steps in one day. That is not achievable for entry level walkers. Start small and aim to commit to walking 2000 to 5000 steps.
#7 walk in short sessions
Split your walks if you have busy schedules. Taking many shorter sessions (10–15 minutes per day ) of walking can make you get 1,000 extra steps.
#8 join walker groups
Joint active people’s community in your neighborhood. I love to meet senior adults, and accompany them in a walk. Some walking groups in UK include Walk4Life, British walking federation, Metropolitan walkers.
#9 Park car far from destination
To incorporate more walking steps, make a habit to park your car and walk 5-10 minutes to your destination in your city.
#10 Track your every step
Wear a pedometer to count or track every step you make. If you make it consistent in wearing a pedometer, you can easily know your average number of steps per mile and step count per day.
#11 Check your heart rate
Don’t miss including heart rate monitoring into your walking exercise. You might just force yourself to overwork if you make more than the number of steps your body can handle. Your heart rate can always tell when you have to stop to rest after a long walk.
#12 make walking a habit
Make walking a habit and a consistent part of your daily activities. That is going to significantly burn off those calories.
Walking activities and their Average steps per minute
Here are some different activities with their estimated number of steps you can make per minute. If you perform each of these physical activities for just about 5 minutes each day, how many steps would you have made for day?
| Walking activity | Average steps in a minute | Steps made in 5 minutes |
| Moderate walking | 80-100 | 400-500 |
| Brisk walking | 130-150 | 650-750 |
| Lawn mowing | 100-140 | 500-700 |
| Vacuum cleaning | 60-100 | 300-500 |
| Fast dance | 120-160 | 600-800 |
| playing tennis (singles) | 100-150 | 500-750 |
| golfing (walking) | 75-120 | 375-600 |
| Total steps for a doing all of these activities in one day | 3325 to 4600 steps | |
The number of steps per mile and the number of steps per minutes depends largely on your weight, height and more.
Factors affecting your walking steps
Making more steps per day can help you reach your fitness goals and improve your overall health. The number of steps you walk per mile for example depend on many factors.
We have discussed some tips on how to make more steps per day. While you start by setting realistic daily step goals, and tracking your progress, consider the following factors.
- Your steps and stride length,
- Body height,
- Walking pace
- Walking intensity (uphill, downhill, rugged terrain)
- your heart rate,
recommended steps per day by age – How many steps is right for my age?
Every pone has a recommended number of steps each day. What is the average step count for people in your age group? It is undeniable that kids and elderly persons can’t walk equal steps as active adults at same pace and time. So, for the same walking activity, the steps you can walk vary or depends on your age and health status.
Number of steps for Kids under 5 years.
A 10k steps walk exercise is as useful for active kids as for adults. At a moderate pace, an average of 5000 steps daily, is right for kids of around 5 years. Some very active children can walk even up to 8000 steps per day. The real difference is, kids have shorter stride length and so, would cover shorter distance than an adult who walk the same number of steps.
Number of steps for kids below 10 years
9 to 10 years is the most active age group for children, such that it is common to find less active boys and girls at this age, walking over 5000 steps each day. Children around 10 years would walk an average of 7500 steps at moderate pace. But then, there are some athletic kids, too. It should not surprise you to learn that very active, fitness focused kids can complete 12,000 steps walking in a day. The fact remains, that the number of miles is greater for an athletic adult who walks 10,000 steps as an athletic kids with shorter step length.
Number of steps for teenagers – 11-17
Some teen boys and girls are more active than adults, and they can walk 5000 steps to just stay fit and healthy. However, on average, the number of steps for a child within the teen age is about 10,000 steps each day. Athletic teenagers would complete several miles of distance, or walking as much as 15,000 steps.
Average step counts for adults under 65 years
If you fall within 18-65 years, that is the most active stage of your life. If you’re one of those folks in their 20s and 30s, you’re highly energetic and can complete a 10,000 steps a day with ease. To maintain basic and good health, 7000 steps should be the minimum number of steps per day for every adult walking at normal pace. My recommendation is for every adult to strive and walk many miles, many steps daily, in order to grow stronger and more balance into old age.
Average steps for seniors over 65 years
My grandmother at 80 is still not too old to walk. The sad truth is, senior citizen have grown a little bit older and weaker than adults, and so, expect their walking steps, walking pace, and step lengths to reduce. At 80, she can hit 3000 steps each day and if she was a serious athlete in her 50s, she would still walk up to 6000-1000 steps. Whatever age an elderly person is, walking is important to maintain maximum health, but should be done carefully without risk of falling off. I often recommend treadmills for seniors walking, than outdoor pavement or road walks and runs.
Summary of the recommended steps per day by age
Walking is one of the best forms of exercise and can easily be incorporated into your daily routine. But kids, adults and elderly person won’t have to walk same steps per day. What number of steps is right for your age group? Below is a table of steps per day by age group.
| Various ages | recommended steps per day |
| kids below 10 years | 1000 |
| teenagers – 11-17 | 2000 |
| adults under 65 years | 5000 |
| seniors over 65 years | 3000 |
Read More: how many miles is 10000 steps?
how to get more steps without walking?
Am wondering how to cheat a step counting that you’re taking more “steps” actually walking when you are not. A great way to get steps while sitting at a desk.
- Attach uour watch or phone to your leg – best to insert it inside your socks.
- Sit on a high chair
- swing your legs up and down while seating.
I also wonder if one can make steps without walking in real life. Let see ourselves how to get more steps without walking at all.
#1. Do cycling
I wonder if cycling can translate into walking steps. You must not tell the cycling app that you are riding a bike or walking. That is insame if you really want to make more steps.
I believe there is a number of miles if you ride, they will translate to walking steps. Cycling at 5mph is equivalent to walking at a pace of 55 steps per minute. Bike riding at 10 miles per hour is also equal to walking averagely 90-95 steps per minute.
The faster you ride the bicycle, the greater the average number of steps equivalent to walking. For example, cycling at the pace od 15mph produces around 160 steps per minutes while 20mph ride is same pace as walking 200 steps per minute.
#2. Go Swim
Another non-walking activity is swimming. How much of your swim is equivalent to a step walked? My estimate shows that front crawl swimming at a pace of 1mph is like walking 90 to 100 steps per minute and that front crawl swimming at 2mph burns calories same way as walking 150 steps per minute.
#3. Take a Virtual Race
You can create a sense of walking or training for an event by signing up for a virtual race. Then, sync your fitness tracker to the race’s app. Do virtual strides or conqueror virtual challenges.
Realted: How many calories do you burn walking 500 steps?
Wrap up + Questions – how to get more steps in a day
Overall, the challenge of increasing your steps everyday is to give excuses and stay lazy doing nothing. Try to get yourself dedicated walking steps. You can’t double up your steps without much commitment. You can do it as if you are engaging in a hull workout program. Just let all of your movement count as steps and make you progress towards your fitness and health goals.
How can I get 10000 steps without leaving the house?
We have seen how to get more steps in a day at home but what if you need to walk as high as 10k steps? Here is how to get 10,000 steps without leaving the house:
- commit to walk 1,000 steps every hour.
- walk on home treadmill before bed time for 30 minutes.
- Double up your steps walking to grocery stores.
- Challenge yourself walking around the neighborhood.
- Stroll while watching your favorite TV movie or Series
- Dance yourself out
- Do house work like vacuum cleaning
Read more: How many calories burned walking 10000 steps?
How do you make sure you get 10000 steps a day?
The average American walks around 3500 to 4,000 steps a day. This is equivalent to 1.5 to 2 miles. With this baseline, if you commit to walking 1000 steps per hour at home or in the office, you will sure get to 10k steps per day.
How can I get 20000 steps in a day?
You can commit to few physical activities to long up more steps. But what ways can you get to walking 20,000 Steps a day?
The best way to make giant steps is to join a walking group. As a team, a walking group can go hiking, and on several miles of adventure each day morning.
One other way is to use your home treadmill before bed time as well as treadmill in your corporate gym, during break hours. Only home and office treadmill workouts can get you 8000 to 12000 steps already.
Combined with walking part of your distance to work and back to your car. Other home routines, and more neighborhood playing with kids can make you walk more than 20k steps per day.
Gearon is a 6 foot active young man, with 5.5″ wrist he feels looks small. The struggle to grow big wrist with exercises and to pick gorgeous watches for his skinny wrists, have earned him an unbeatable passion for wrist watches, especially smartwatches. As an entrepreneur and a handy project manager, he knows exactly what product quality is, in the eye of a customer and what value they expect for their money. He combined all these talents, and created this blog to share his knowledge to everyone and the fashion community.
