JJ Virgin explains why 8,000 to 12,000 daily steps lower mortality risk, then shares how she hit that target by tracking steps and parking farther away. Simple moves: stand instead of sit, use stairs, aim for half your steps before noon.
Alright, so you've heard forever that you should take the stairs and park farther away, and the reality is, as much as I've always heard this, I never did it until I started tracking my activity. The studies are really clear that getting at least 8,000 steps a day is huge for your reducing your all-cause mortality risk, and the sweet spot's really somewhere in that 8,000 to 12,000 steps a day, yet the average person in the United States is getting about 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day, and I mean, that is sad and pathetic, right? We can do better. And so how do you do better? Well, what you measure and monitor you can improve. And so as I started to track last year, it was like, okay, 8,000 is now my minimum, my floor. I will make sure I get that every single night. I think I missed it one time when I was sick. So even on planes and stuff, you'll see me all over the place walking, walking, walking. Now I raised my floor to 10,000. So what does that mean? That means anytime I can possibly move more, I do. I stand instead of sit. Like, I was just at a conference where they literally had standing desks and walking treadmills under the desk, so I made sure I had one of those. And I will take the stairs whenever possible. I look for reasons to have to go and move more with the goal of always getting at least half those steps before noon because then it's easy.
