4 ways to sneak more steps into your day

If you’ve ever got to the end of a long day and realised you’ve barely moved, you’re not alone.

For most healthy adults, aiming to walk about 10,000 steps daily is an excellent goal to maintain health and prevent potential health issues in the future.

Regular walking has many health benefits, from reducing your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes,¹ depression,² as well as strengthening bones and muscles and improving balance.³

But the reality is, many Australians still aren't getting enough exercise. In 2022, most teens (83%) didn’t meet the recommended activity levels, and nearly 4 in 10 adults aged 18–64 were also falling short. It’s even higher for people over 65, with more than half not getting enough movement. When it comes to muscle-strengthening exercises, the numbers were even lower, with only a small portion of each age group met the guidelines.⁴

But if you spend long days behind a desk or in the car juggling the demands of modern life, the idea of clocking up 10,000 steps may feel overwhelming.

The good news is, your daily errands are likely giving you a healthy head start.

The average person walks about 6,500 steps over the course of their day through incidental activities like commuting to work, doing the shopping, and cleaning the house.⁵

So, the question then becomes: How can you make up the difference?

“To get those extra steps is pretty much looking at how you can incorporate walking more into your daily routine,” says Nadeena Thenabadu, Owner and Physiotherapist of Melbourne’s Head2toe Physiotherapy and Podiatry.

And this may be easier than you might think.

Nadeena shares his top tips to help you plan out your new walking journey.

Getting in your daily steps rarely involves going for one long 10,000-step walk. For most people, everyday incidental walking will make up the large swath of your steps.

To figure out how many extra steps you’ll need to add in to your day, start by working out how many steps you’re already getting through incidental activities like commuting and shopping. Then do the maths.

The average person walks around 100 steps per minute.⁶

At this brisk pace, you’re clocking in at around 5 or 6 on the Borg Scale, which measures physical exertion (this is a fairly moderate pace, where breathing becomes a little heavy and talking starts to become difficult).⁷

So, if you’re already getting around 6,500 steps via incidental walking, you may be able to make up the deficit with around half an hour of added, intentional walking.

We’ve all been there. Starting a new fitness regime filled with energy, only to run out of steam when life starts getting in the way.

For Nadeena, maintaining long-term fitness goals like regular, intentional walking all comes down to planning and habit building. “You want to start small then build up,” he says. “With habit building, you don't want to promise yourself you're going to do 7 days a week walking straight away.”

Nadeena suggests starting off with small, achievable walking blocks. “That might be incorporating it in the day to begin with then transitioning into more purposeful, intentional blocks of 5, 10, 20 minutes.”

He also recommends doing these walks around twice a week to begin with, then increasing them to 3 or 4 blocks only when you’ve established a good routine, after a month or so in.

“I tell my patients, it’s not about getting the exercise benefits first,” says Nadeena. “It's about building the habit first.”

With things like working from home becoming more common, many of us aren’t achieving the same amount of incidental exercise that we used to. So, getting to 10,000 steps might not be as simple as going for a 30-minute walk.

“When people were working from the office, they had to commute, they had to move, but now that's a lot harder,” says Nadeena.

If this applies to you, Nadeena recommends coming up with creative ways to incorporate more movement into your day. He suggests things like taking quick walks around the house during breaks, or taking longer, indirect routes to the bathroom or kitchen.

Likewise, if you can’t fit in a long walk, Nadeena also suggests going for a few shorter walks throughout the day instead. “Split [the] workday up by going for a 5-minute walk outside and coming back. That routine will help.

Nadeena adds that regular short walks can also help to change up your posture, which is a good thing if you’re sitting at a desk all day.

You may have wondered if your gym workout can count towards your daily steps. After all, isn’t it all just exercise?

Unfortunately, unless we’re talking about the treadmill or stair master, your workout probably won’t count towards your steps.

To receive the full benefits of walking, it should be done alongside more vigorous activity, like running, cycling and strength training, Nadeena says.

Fitness requires balance and variety.

A squat may not count as a step, but the more you move each day the closer you’ll get to better health.