Yes, the original translation, so some say of the "pedometer" is literally "the ten thousand step machine" and so, part of the mythology of the pedometer, is based on this fact.
The other part, that taking ten thousand steps a day will make you healthy, well, that's debatable.
The other thing I see a lot of, is people that can't even make it past 5,000 steps a day, even when they treat it like a competition.
A short walking day for me, if I'm not riding my bike, which is of course, much faster, and, gives me the ability to do some rigorous HIIT training when I hit that big hill at the end of my day, is around 15,000 steps.
This past summer, until that 40 buck bike showed up at the re-store, my average was around 20,000 and many a day ended up with 30k steps in 24 hrs.
It's not really a challenge to walk ten thousand steps folks.
Not unless you have been sitting your entire life, sedentary and frozen, staring at the blue screen of death.
No, not the old Microsoft Windows induced bsod.
No no, that was old tech usually.
The new one, is the one you are using as your step counter.
Yep, that lovely iPhone X.
Does that stand for "10" or "XL"?
Or your shiny android.
You get to 4,333 steps and your bi-directional Emf device lights up and "pings" you.
WOW!
"I'm almost halfway there!" You think.
I'll just tweet about it.
As you stare at the screen, you stop walking.
The blue photons rake your SCN and nullify any benefit the last 4,000 steps did, and, for some reason, you begin to feel hungry all of a sudden.
Shaky even.
"I must be having a low blood sugar attack", you think.
Actually, that's just what is happening!
It's that pesky screen on your handy dandy fitness tracker/social media chatter/mitochondrial batter-ing device signaling your pituitary to ramp up your cortisol/fight or flight adrenal pathway.
At the same time, it's signalling your brain that you are eating sugar.
Of course, getting to that 10,000 steps is going to make you feel so amazing when all your friends comment and cheer and also stare at their mitochondrial energy mitigation machines as they to, take a total dopamine draining, DHA destroying gaze into the face of their own metabolic destruction machine.
So, take up a new challenge for a week.
Challenge yourself to stay off your phone and/or devices with screens.
Then you might see just what taking an easy ten thousand steps means.
E-GO 2018
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side
