10,000 Steps a Day Keeps Us In a Shape

 

The alarm clock and the get up movement from the bed, begins the marathon account steps that devices continue your physical activity, considered to stay in shape during the day.

At the end of the day when bedtime approaches, your bracelet vibrates, the alarm sounded and a state of satisfaction invades your body. Ultimately, the aim of the steps that got Fitbit and other devices recommend to be active.

Bracelet can be customized, but the mark set by default Fitbit, which also makes specific monitoring state, the number of calories burned and the distance traveled by the people, is 10,000 steps.

"It's a strange reward" admitted Nath Buck, 26, who has been using this device for more than a year ago. "I bought it out of curiosity to know how active it was," but now convinced the people who live and three colleagues to acquire similar devices to compare who can walk more steps more quickly.

The Magic Number

The market for devices and applications for exercise has become big business, with production expected to rise from 17.7 million units in 2014 to 40.7 million units this year.
According to research company IDC, they will sell more than 100 million devices in 2019, that can be worn on the wrist.

One third of the market is occupied by products manufactured by Fitbit and Jawbone therefore another. Your brand by default is set to 10,000 steps, or to an estimated eight kilometers a day. The figure is repeated in other applications, while there are devices which provide a measure equivalent to that number of steps.

But how come the 10,000 steps?

It is believed that the concept originated in Japan before the Olympic Games of 1964, as said Catrine Tudor-Locke, associate professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center of Louisiana State University. Pedometers became the sensation of the Olympic fever infected country and a company launched a device called Manpo-kei, which means the extent of the 10,000 steps.

"It was a business motto like" Just do it "Nike, and that resonated among the population", Tudor-Locke said. Since then the brand has become the standard lens in the world of physical activity around the world.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan, for instance, recommends "daily walk 8,000 to 10,000 steps." In the UK, National Obesity Forum said that a person walking between 7,000 and 10,000 is "moderately active".

It Is Not So Simple

Fitness expert Laura Williams considers the impact it has had the theory of 10,000 steps is that it is a round, attractive, similar to Malcolm Gladwell's theory of number 10,000 hours of practice you can get to become an expert in any field.

Williams adds that when referring to activities like walking and steps it more viable for many who believe "that 150 minutes of exercise a week -recommended by the World Health Organization-sounds like a lot."

But the reality is different nuances, such that not all the steps are the same. Esliger Dale, professor in measuring physical activity at the University of Loughborough, explained that there are differences "if you have short or long legs." For a woman with long legs, 10,000 steps it is not as demanding as it would be for someone little work besides the gait differs between people as much as eye color or their personalities. 

He adds the question that a bracelet that measures the activity of legs left margin of error because of those 10,000 steps "may include movements like duck to tie your shoelaces," Esliger said. "The best device to follow the steps should be one that is located in the ankle, to register a biomechanically step."

According to the Health Service in the UK, the NHS for its acronym in English, a person walks on average between 3,000 and 4,000 steps a day, less than half the target set in the devices. "If you run three times a week course you will not be fitter than if you walk 10,000 steps," said Williams.

"In that case you are already in shape and should strive further to improve your condition than someone who has a low fitness or is inactive. For them, walking 5,000 or 10,000 steps a day will have a clear advantage."

Williams believes that to achieve that goal the people must create a structure that encourages walking into your daily routine, which may include a spin or away from the workplace a kilometer and a half for lunch.

Required also recommends increasing the pace and intensity of the steps to increase profits. Tudor-Locke agrees that 10,000 steps is a "laudable" objective. "Do it if you want to do. In fact up to 12,000 or 14,000 steps. There is a limit that we know will be counterproductive to your health." But warns that it should not become an obsession. "More than a number, which is most important is not being sedentary."

Besides the benefits they will be reduced as chocolate or other foods that alter a balanced diet appears.