How do you hit 10K steps with a desk job?

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slickmickey
slickmickey Posts: 113 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm having issues with this. today (it's just shy 3:30p right now) i've done my normal bathroom runs to the other end of the building, parked at the other end of the building so i have to walk, took the stairs up and down the 2 floors and even went on a 1.1mi walk on my lunch break. i've only gotten to 5100 steps. by the time i leave work i *might* hit 6000.

help! i feel like i'm going to have to do a 5k every day if i want to have a shot at making 10000 steps.
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Replies

  • jlahorn
    jlahorn Posts: 377 Member
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    I have a desk job. I usually get 5-6k at work. Then I go to the gym and do a Zumba class and hit ~11k. Go home, do some light chores, maybe go for a 30-minute walk with my husband... I usually break 14k. It doesn't feel like a lot of effort.
  • paris458
    paris458 Posts: 231 Member
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    I take a 20 minute walk twice a day on my breaks and a walk on my lunch break. I usually get 8000 steps. if I want more I will take the dogs for a walk when I get home but I usually go to the gym and I dont feel my steps are as important
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    jlahorn wrote: »
    I have a desk job. I usually get 5-6k at work. Then I go to the gym and do a Zumba class and hit ~11k. Go home, do some light chores, maybe go for a 30-minute walk with my husband... I usually break 14k. It doesn't feel like a lot of effort.

    This^

    I can't hit >10,000 inside the office (even with a walk at lunch). A 10,000 step goal takes time to develop. Just increase your goal by 1,000 or so every couple of weeks and it will happen.
  • rushfive
    rushfive Posts: 603 Member
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    My day numbers are like yours. desk job... to get 10000 I do a hour walk in the evening. I walk as fast as I can, then slow down a bit, then fast as I can again... you get my point. :)
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    slickmickey wrote: »
    help! i feel like i'm going to have to do a 5k every day if i want to have a shot at making 10000 steps.

    What would be wrong with that? It would be a fantastic, time-efficient exercise.

  • BasicGreatGuy
    BasicGreatGuy Posts: 868 Member
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    Try walking for 30 - 45 mins before or after work every day. That will help your total.

    10,000 (depending on stride) is close to 5 miles.
  • erockem
    erockem Posts: 278 Member
    edited August 2015
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    IT guy here. I hit 15K.

    NOT including cardio: usually 1,500 from wake up to sitting at my desk. I park farther away in the lot. About every hour I walk to the lunch room and refill my water bottle, 200 steps directly, but I'm on the first floor and so is the lunch room. So I walk up to the third floor, cross to the far side of the building, walk back down to the lunch room and then back to my desk, 400-500 steps each trip, sometimes I walk back up to the 3rd floor and back to my desk. I walk at lunch if it's nice, if not I walk the hallways, 3000-4000 steps. Then another 1,500 at home.

    Now when I toss in my Tuesday and Thursdays runs, that's 5,000-7,000 extra steps for a 40 minute run.

    I try to walk with my wife every night, another 3,000 or so.

    When I weight lift on M,W,F for 60-90 minutes; it starts with a 10-15 minute walking warmup, then I'm walking around between sets for 3,000 or so.

    Currently at 109,987 for the last 7 days.
  • WickedPineapple
    WickedPineapple Posts: 701 Member
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    You're actually lucky, I work in a really small office with no stairs (I'm literally 20 steps from the bathroom, 40 steps from where my car is parked). I've finally increased my workday steps from 2k to 3k. :) I take every opportunity to walk around the office; while my water is warming up for my tea, waiting for something to print, while talking on my cell phone, etc.
  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 612 Member
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    While I don't have a desk job, I don't strive to hit the 10000 magical step, but the CDC recommended 7000 steps a day, with that said, I hit mine by going to the gym every morning, doing 60 mins of intense cardio gets me past the 10k mark every day. I usually hit somewhere between 15k and 24k a day.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
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    WickedPineapple wrote: »
    You're actually lucky, I work in a really small office with no stairs (I'm literally 20 steps from the bathroom, 40 steps from where my car is parked). I've finally increased my workday steps from 2k to 3k. :) I take every opportunity to walk around the office; while my water is warming up for my tea, waiting for something to print, while talking on my cell phone, etc.

    This is me, too. I run 3-4 miles sometime during the day - morning, lunch break, or after the sun is down because holy crap is it hot here. On off days, I'll take the dog for a nice long walk.
  • hamptontom
    hamptontom Posts: 536 Member
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    i'm also an IT guy, and like erockem above, i'm lucky enough to have a pretty decent-sized campus to cover during the course of a day...but i usually end up with a deficit at the end of the workday, and have to make it up at some point during the day. if it's a non-gym day, i'll literally throw on the shorts and a t-shirt and go for a walk at night (when it's not miserably humid here in Nashville) with my phone in my pocket to make up my 10K goal.

    since taking up cycling and joining the gym, it's been less of a priority to make absolutely sure that i meet the goal every day, but i still make an effort to get as many in as i can. last night at the gym, i did an hour on the treadmill and 40 minutes on the bike, just because it was so late when i got there that i had no gas in the tank for the weight circuit.
  • theawill519
    theawill519 Posts: 242 Member
    edited August 2015
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    jlahorn wrote: »
    I have a desk job. I usually get 5-6k at work. Then I go to the gym and do a Zumba class and hit ~11k. Go home, do some light chores, maybe go for a 30-minute walk with my husband... I usually break 14k. It doesn't feel like a lot of effort.

    ^This is my life.

    You're going to have to walk or workout after work to meet your goal.
  • erockem
    erockem Posts: 278 Member
    edited August 2015
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    With the larger campus I bumped to 15k. And I still have to do 'extra' just to hit my goal. Lucky enough, that my work from home days fall on my running days or I'd struggle to hit 5k on T/Th.

    Some days I drive myself nuts to get all my steps, those days I usually end up short about 2-4k. I'm sure my fitbit is counting backwards on those days. Those days I look at my average for the last 7 days. If your's is above 70k, that's 10k a day. Catch the extra steps on other days.

    Today I met with a vendor so I worked from home the rest of the day and it's been raining. At 3.5k so far @ 5:00pm, I'll be lucky to catch another 4-5k at the Y tonight so I'm looking at the big picture, for the week I'm now @ 110k, I just needed to be above 105k. Tomorrow were heading to state fair which is usually about 11 miles of walking.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
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    I jockey a desk - park far away, use the bathroom 3 floors below me, visit my boss on the other side of the building, take a move break every hour and manage to hit ~6k/day. I do the rest after work or before depending on what else is going on.
  • ki4eld
    ki4eld Posts: 1,215 Member
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    I'm an editor and although I could get up at 7a, I get up at 530a to go for an hour walk. That takes care of about 7k of the 12k per day. I pick up the rest during the day with 2 "walk breaks" and an evening stroll with hubby and the dog. I couldn't make 10k per day without the AM walk. I tried all sorts of combos and discovered that just getting up earlier and doing it AM was the easiest way to guarantee I'd get them. After about a month, it was no biggie. I self-adjusted my bedtime to about 45 minutes earlier and voila! Done.
  • Peggy69
    Peggy69 Posts: 22 Member
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    I walk part way in and out of work (between train/bus) and either walk during my lunch break or walk to a station further away from work when I finish.....it takes effort, but 10k steps is never going to be easy or everyone would be doing it!
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    I have a desk job. on days I have counted my steps I get 6-7000. I run 3 times a week and do a bit of yoga and strength training so I don't worry about getting any more steps TBH.
  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
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    slickmickey wrote: »
    help! i feel like i'm going to have to do a 5k every day if i want to have a shot at making 10000 steps.

    I do a 10k nearly every morning before work. I have 10k steps before 7 am on mornings I run. If adding a 5k is necessary then do it. God knows I don't move an inch here at work.
  • kittikatkitty
    kittikatkitty Posts: 12 Member
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    I can't hit 10,000 either. I have a tiny walk to my office, and the office is tiny and I am lucky with the bathroom just steps away. The water cooler is upstairs and the lunch room. I try a few squats jumping jacks in the bathroom. But I fail at it too. Plus an hour commute each way doesn't help me either. But I am losing and that is what matters to me.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,511 Member
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    You MAKE time before/during/after work if you want to reach it. A desk job isn't the reason, it's just a deterrence. If it's something you want to meet, then you find a way to do it.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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