How to Build Up to 10,000 Steps Per Day (For Beginners) by Susan Masterson, PhD

Plenty of us will be making New Year's resolutions to exercise soon, and most will not follow through. Why does that happen? We set ourselves up for failure with our expectations. If you're sedentary now, you can still be successful with the right mindset. To reach 10,000 steps per day, here's where to start and how to get there:

First, count the steps around the house to see how much activity you’re getting now. Even without an activity tracker, you can get a rough estimate. For an example, you might be getting in 3,000 a day. So, identify your first goal, say 4,000 per day. Each week bump it up enough to make you feel like you did more, but don’t go crazy. Remember, we’re building our lifestyle, not making a drastic change. 

• Week 1: Get in an extra 250 steps each hour for your most active four hours of the day. (That takes me about two minutes, really.) 

• Week 2: Get in an extra 250 steps each hour for five hours. This way there’s an hour you’re moving a little more when you would typically be sedentary.

• Week 3: Get in an extra 250 for six hours. You get the idea. 

• Week 4:  Up it to seven hours.

• Week 5: Get it to eight hours. Excellent! This gets you up to 5,000 steps per day. 

Now take it from there and go!

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