Overview

• The 10,000-step benchmark traces back to a 1964 pedometer ad by Japan’s Yamasa and was never grounded in sport science.
• A Lancet Public Health meta-analysis of 57 studies covering 160,000 participants found that 7,000 daily steps cut overall mortality risk by nearly 50% and substantially lower dementia, depression and diabetes rates.
• Experts recommend adding roughly 3,000 steps to one’s habitual daily count rather than pursuing a fixed 10,000-step target.
• Abruptly increasing activity to 10,000 steps can cause muscle soreness, joint pain or sprains in untrained individuals.
• Health authorities now advise cultivating bodily awareness and integrating moderate walking into work, transport and leisure instead of obsessively counting steps.