If you have a desk job, chances are it’s a struggle for you to meet the recommended 10,000 steps a day without consciously making time to go for a walk. But if, on the other hand, your job requires a lot of moving about, you could find yourself doing well above the recommended amount.
As part of The National's #startwalking challenge, which has been running throughout March, we selected 10 people working in different industries and asked them to wear a Jawbone Up activity tracker for a week. We wanted to see how many steps they did each day and whether wearing the device made them think more about their movement.
[ Click here to see how our participants fared with the Jawbone ]
Our participants covered all ends of the spectrum, from a driver and construction professional to a nurse and waiter. At one end of the scale, driver Fazal Hakeem averaged just under 4,000 steps a day, while activity guide Ajab Khan completed almost 22,500 steps on average each day.
Through this process, we found that if your job is sedentary, you’ll average around 4,000 steps a day, but you’re more likely to do around 17,500 steps a day if your job is not desk-based.
Once we added up the averages of all 10 participants, we found that people clocked up around 12,300 steps on work days and 9,352 on rest days, suggesting that we are more active when we’re working.
There was very little difference between the averages of our male and female participants. Men achieved 11,878 steps, while women were not too far behind at 11,095. We also noticed an even split in the participants who averaged more than 10,000 steps a day and those who did fewer.
The highest number of steps in a day was an impressive 28,632 by Khan on a work day, while the lowest was 1,265 by desk-based construction professional Stuart Keane on a rest day. The most active day of the week seems to be Sunday, while Monday is the laziest.
Almost all of the participants agreed that wearing the fitness tracker made them think more about their daily activity, and many said they made decisions throughout the day that would increase their step count. “I popped out for a meeting the other day and insisted we use the stairs rather than the lift,” said housewife Sue Doshi, whose daily average step count was almost 8,000.
Justin Galea, director of food and beverage at Le Royal Méridien Abu Dhabi, also felt motivated to increase his activity, particularly on the days when he was at his desk. “Wearing the Jawbone made me aware when I needed to walk more. When my step count was low, I would try to walk around the office while having a meeting to bring my step count up,” he said.
Research shows that wearing activity trackers boosts motivation to move. A review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2007 found that the use of a pedometer, or fitness tracker, with a set goal, such as 10,000 steps, was associated with a 27 per cent increase in physical activity and, over time, decreases in body mass and blood pressure.
The good news is that it’s not necessary to have the latest fitness tracker or pedometer. There are many such gadgets to suit all budgets from sporting and technology brands, and smartphone manufacturers, such as Apple and Samsung, have also started enabling their devices to track steps, movement and other health indicators, such as blood pressure and stress levels, either through motion sensing or GPS tracking. And if that fails, there’s always the golden rule: at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity walking every day.
atomlinson@thenational.ae
