10,000 steps a day? It’s not the number that counts, it’s the cadence

You know, we hear it very often, it is recommended to take 10,000 steps every day to be in good health. But according to a study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, there is much more important than the number of steps you take… The intensity of the physical effort! Walking is good, but exercising your body is better.

30 minutes of physical activity a day…

Experts recommend doing 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day instead. Clearly, if a person is able to have a discussion during the exercise, then it is moderate effort. If the 10,000 steps a day are very good for your health, it nevertheless represents more than seven kilometers of walking. A complicated distance to reach regularly in an increasingly sedentary society.

For François Carré, cardiologist and sports doctor at the University Hospital of Rennes, it is quite simple to do your 30 minutes a day. “I take my modest example. I park about 1 kilometer from my hospital. I walk ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the evening when I leave work and ten minutes after eating. I did my 30 minutes and I walked actively,” he says.

… Reduces the risk of developing certain diseases by approximately 30%

Having this daily activity reduces the risk of developing certain diseases by around 30%, as explained by Laurent Winkler, doctor for the French judo teams. “Cardiovascular diseases, cancers, high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, all these diseases, it has been shown that physical activity was the main element that could reduce their incidence or their severity”, explains he.

What should be learned from this study is above all that the slightest regular physical activity, even very short, can improve your health and prevent certain diseases.