Tips to get 10,000 steps

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Ernin123
Ernin123 Posts: 2 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Any tips to getting your 10,000 steps when you have a desk job?
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  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
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    Sure, I do it all the time. Get up at 4:30 AM out the door by 5:00 and run 6 miles. I can run one hour and hit 10000 steps at exactly the six mile mark.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    You definitely have to do some deliberate exercise. Parking far away and walking to a farther bathroom will only get you so far.

    Do you have a dog.....can you take him for a walk after work? Can you use part of your lunch hour for walking? I have walking shoes under my desk, but when the weather is crappy I go to the big box home improvement store across the street, or put in a "walking" DVD and shut my door (look at YouTube Walk At Home).
  • sammyliftsandeats
    sammyliftsandeats Posts: 2,421 Member
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    I don't have a car so I take the train/bus everywhere. I get my steps walking to and from the bus stop, walking around my office at work, and exercising.

    If you work in a multifloor office building, try going to the bathroom one floor down or up and use the stairs. Take a walk during your lunch break. Park further away from the building when you get to work.
  • 3rdof7sisters
    3rdof7sisters Posts: 486 Member
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    Park as far away from the door as you can. Get up every hour and walk around the office (for me it is 258 steps). Take the stairs if at all possible. Walk on breaks. They all add up over the day.
  • Lillymoo01
    Lillymoo01 Posts: 2,865 Member
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    Walk at lunch time. Park your car a little further away from your work than you normally do. Park att the furtherest end of supermarkets etc instead of as close as possible.
    Walk around with your phone or tablet when on social media rather than sitting.
    Make sure you add a decent 30 minute + walk at the start of the day and/or in the evening.
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
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    Yep, I got up every hour and marched in the bathroom - our office was small! I always took the stairs (4 flights) and at lunch went for a 25min walk.

    It still required going for a run or walk to hit 10k. I no longer work, so I run 3-5 miles a day. That coupled with taking care of my house and kids puts me well over 10k a day.
  • _runnerbean_
    _runnerbean_ Posts: 640 Member
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    Go for a walk or run in your lunch break. If you can't get out of your house in the evenings do a "walk at home" Leslie samsome video from you tube or just march on the spot when you are watching tv.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 25,037 Member
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    I joined a step challenge in October which my workplace put on. My guess was that I was walking anywhere from 5000-8000 steps a day, and so a main reason for joining the challenge was to see for sure how many I was walking.

    Turned out that 10,000 steps were what I considered a rest day and I ended up averaging about 16,000 steps.

    I walk as part of my commute.
    I walk at lunch.
    I walked the long way to the toilet (turns out that's 200 metres return).
    I climb approx. 25 flights of stairs (20 stairs per flight) each day.
    I walked with my husband after work.
    I paced the kitchen while waiting for my lunch to cook or toast to pop up or kettle to boil.
    We park some distance away from wherever we want to go, and walk.
    While grocery shopping, I walked up and down each aisle 2 or 3 times.
    On some weekends, we'd go for a long hike or go to the gym and walk/run on the treadmill.
    And if I'm just a bit over on my calories, I'll climb stairs at home.
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    You can march in place or use Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds videos.

    Walk to the park.

    Walk around the block when after you park the car.

    Get a dog.

    rsclause wrote: »
    Sure, I do it all the time. Get up at 4:30 AM out the door by 5:00 and run 6 miles. I can run one hour and hit 10000 steps at exactly the six mile mark.

    You must have one heck of stride!
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    Walk before work. Walk at lunch time. Walk after work. Walk after dinner.
  • SafioraLinnea
    SafioraLinnea Posts: 628 Member
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    I walk for about an hour in the evening. Combine that with my normal daily activity = 10000+ steps a day.
  • ladyreva78
    ladyreva78 Posts: 4,080 Member
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    Start slow is my advice. Get your step average, then find little things to add 1K daily and make sure you do that until those little things become habit. Then add another little thing and make it habit.

    I started with an average of 1K steps per day (purposeful exercise not included). I'm now up to 8K. my final goal is somewhere between 12k and 15k (comparing my current level with that, it seems sustainable to add that many steps to my otherwise sedentary work day)

    - I jog in spot for 1-2 minutes every time I go to the bathroom (either before or after... not during)
    - I take the stairs whenever possible
    - I take the parking lot furthest away from where I need to be
    - I take a 15-20 minute walk every lunch break
    - I take a 15-20 minute walk after work
    - I take the groceries in 1 bag at a time
    - I put the laundry away one bit at a time (there's a flight of stairs in between... so on Saturdays that's a lot of steps right there - 2 flights if you consider the fact that the laundry room is one floor below where I fold which itself is 1 floor below where most of the stuff is stored)
    - I jog in space during the commercials when I watch TV
    - I pace around the kitchen while I wait for the kettle to boil
    - I walk up and down the stairs at work during my lunch break (when the weather's so bad I'm not willing to go out)
    - I walk around the office when I'm on the phone
    - I take the long way around to go to the break room
    - I volunteer to take the mail to the mail room (and take the long way around to get there)
    - I jog in space between sets when I lift weights
    - I pace the hallway before going to bed if I'm still short on steps to reach my 8K
    - ...

    It's lots of little things that on their own don't take much time but add quite a few steps.
  • LazyButHealthy
    LazyButHealthy Posts: 257 Member
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    Ernin123 wrote: »
    Any tips to getting your 10,000 steps when you have a desk job?

    If you're like me then getting up at 0430 is lunacy, and will never happen.

    So, let's be honest about what is achievable to begin with and start from there. Grow it a little at a time.
    Remember, that 10,000 steps is pretty arbitrary marker when most sedentary workers average below 3,000 steps a day.

    Start with just moving more than you do now. Do you average 2,000 steps? 3? 4?

    Change 1. Identify your baseline, and start with a 10-20% increase for a few days. That is easily achievable by making small changes without heavily impacting your daily routine, and therefore likely to become part of it.

    Change 2. Once you're comfortable with moving more every single day, then you need to make some bigger commitments. Work up to doubling your steps. Don't worry about 10k or not, just focus on moving markedly more than you used to. At this point it will need a few more conscious decisions - take the stairs instead of the lift; don't drive to work, take public transport, on way home from work take a nice detour and the long way home. Don't walk to corner shop on Saturday morning, walk to the one in the opposite direction double the distance. Meeting friends for Sunday lunch? Plan to leave the house 1 hour earlier and walk a portion of your journey.

    For my daily job, I'm very sedentary, and it is only with the second category of detours and conscious decisions do I hit 10,000. Cannot hit it with a regular work day.

    Change 3. Now I want quality, not quantity. So, I've shifted from counting steps to distance and heart rate. For this, I joined a gym (and I don't hate it!!!). I'm still 200lbs and obese, so I get on the treadmill for minimum 1 hour, minimum 5km (whichever comes last) and include some running intervals.
    Yesterday I 'only' hit 9,000 steps - but those steps were sweaty, burning and half at 10% uphill incline.

    Good luck!
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    10k steps is around 1.5-2hrs of walking in total. Spread throughout the day and including general activity it is easy to do.
  • cityruss
    cityruss Posts: 2,493 Member
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    Walk at non desk based times.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    I have a full time desk job, I get most of my 10k done before work, it takes an hour...

    but if you don't have time for that there are other ways to make steps add up - walk at lunch break, get up every 30 mins from desk and walk to another office (any excuse :smiley: ), I've even done 'log jogging' - can knock up 300 steps at any one loo visit with doing that LOL.
  • emmarrgh
    emmarrgh Posts: 44 Member
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    I have a Wii Fit stepper, and I have it on a 4-inch riser so it's about a 6 inch step, and I put it on Free Step and watch TV for 30 mins while stepping, and that does 3200 steps right there :) it also works up a sweat if I hurry, unlike normal pacing around my house, so it feels more like exercise.

    You can get any stepper/step-stool and do your own steps if you don't have a Wii Fit.
  • BruinsGal_91
    BruinsGal_91 Posts: 1,400 Member
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    I work full-time and have a desk job. I can just about get to my 10,000 steps by the end of the work day. I do it by parking my car on the fifth floor of the parking garage and taking the stairs instead of the elevator. I get up from my desk every hour and take three flights of stairs up to the top floor of the office building, walk to the end, and take the stairs back down and go back to my desk. At lunch time I go for a walk (about 1.5 miles) and then at the end of the day, it's back up five flights of stairs to my car.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    Put an app on your phone that will alert you to take a break every hour or so, if that is something you are able to do in your job. My biggest problem is getting engrossed deeply in work and not looking up to check the time for 3-4 hours. I use a timer app to remind me to get up every so often.

    Other than that, I try to take a walk at lunch whenever possible and walk to meetings (I work on a large campus) rather than drive to them. I also try to fit in a walk either in the morning or after dinner, if I am not lifting weights on that day.

    I don't find it easy to get 10,000 steps on work days when I am lifting weights. My goal for those days is 8000.
  • vkdarling
    vkdarling Posts: 161 Member
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    - I jog in place while I make copies
    - I park far away
    - I jog or pace while I cook at home
    - I don't let myself sit down for the evening until I have my step goal (which in turn means my house is cleaner)
    - If I'm really low on steps for the day I do a walking exercise video
    - I walk to someone if I want to talk to them rather than e mailing
    - I do fitbit challenges with my co workers so we all have to find ways and give each other support
    - I put up laundry one stack at a time rather than carrying an entire basket to each room.
    - I take the long way when I need to move around the building
    - I kind of drive people crazy by pacing a lot.

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