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How many steps do you take in a day? Is it enough to maintain your fitness levels? Well, if you don’t know the answers to these questions, here is your chance to find out.
As part of World Foot Health Awareness Month, the SCP is launching its 10,000 Steps to Health & Fitness challenge.
We want people to measure the number of steps that they take in a day, with the aim of reaching 10,000 steps, and send us the results for us to collate into league tables.
Why 10,000 steps?
Our challenge is based on an idea developed in Japan 40 years ago, that walking 10,000 steps a day will keep you fit and healthy without the need for additional exercise.
While this may not be necessarily exact, it is a good basic philosophy and definitely offers increased health benefits over a sedentary lifestyle – an all too familiar choice for many people nowadays!
On average, people walk between 2,000 and 6,000 steps a day (between one and three miles), so to reach the goal of 10,000 steps means walking an extra half an hour a day, which can be easily done on the way to work or in a lunch hour. Twenty simple ways to increase your steps as part of your everyday routine.
This is a challenge that almost everyone will be able to take part in. It does not involve a lot of time or specialist equipment – just a pedometer and a good pair of trainers.
A pedometer is a small instrument that clips on to a belt that measures the number of steps you take.
The nickname for a pedometer in Japan is ‘manpo-kei’, which actually means 10,000 steps, and is used in Japan to promote walking clubs. It is ideal for all age groups and even the most unfit people will be able to manage a few steps!
The National Challenge
To promote this challenge nationwide we want to hold a event that focuses on three different groups of challengers:
Group 1: Key community occupations: podiatrists and other key health workers, policeman, teacher, journalist, mum, politician, office worker, etc. Group 2: Sports people: Sprinter, footballer, boxer, marathon runner, rugby player etc. Group 3: People at different life-stages: toddler, 5-11; school-age child; teenager; adult; elderly.
We then want all the challengers to measure the number of steps they take over a day and send us the results.
From this, we are hoping to create league tables that compare different occupations, ages etc, and create a list of facts and findings about foot use. Hopefully we should get some interesting results – it might be that a busy mum takes more steps running after her toddler than a policeman on the beat! We are also hoping to get some ‘high-profile’ challengers to take part, to ensure that we get a lot of media interest in the event.
How you can get involved <
Take part in the challenge yourself, and get your family, friends and patients to get involved. Go one step further (excuse the pun) and if you belong to a gym, or golf club, set up a challenge to see who can walk the most number of steps during a workout or round of golf (probably those who keep losing the ball!). You may be surprised at the results.
A full pack including details of how to get started, advice on good foot health and choosing the right footwear, and a feedback form for you to send us your results, will be available in April to download directly from this website.
All we ask is that you fill in the feedback form, with the details of the steps you and your friends have taken, with some background information on your ages, professions, etc.
Getting started on the challenge
For the 10,000 steps challenge we want people to measure their steps over an average working day using their pedometer (two days would be ideal and then calculate an average, but we appreciate this may not be convenient for everyone).
Please then send us your result, together with details of your age and occupation, and we can then input this information into our league tables.
If you wish to use the challenge to incorporate walking into a long-term fitness regime, then the following is recommended. First, you need to calculate your daily average number of steps. Use your pedometer to measure your steps, ideally for a week or two, and keep a note of your daily step count. Then calculate your average daily count (by adding all the totals for a week together and dividing by seven).
Once you have worked out your average, you should aim to increase your average step count by 500 per week. If you currently take 4,000 steps a day, increase your count by an extra 500 per week for the next twelve weeks to hit the target.
Feet for Life Month
World Foot Health Awareness Month is a worldwide concept, with all the member organisations of the Federation of International Podiatrists (FIP) taking part, to promote foot health and podiatry in their own countries.
In the UK, we have renamed it ‘Feet For Life Month’. This emphasises the positive message of attention, prevention and care of feet throughout life, and communicates the fundamental message that feet are a vital part of life and that it is important to take good care of them. Warning
Before starting any new exercise, it is a good idea to discuss it with your GP or health practitioner especially if you have any ongoing health concerns or are on medication. It is also important to build up slowly to avoid injury, especially if you have not been exercising regularly.
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