Most people know how much difference increasing and tracking steps make to improving fitness but do you know why it’s so important?
On Your Feet Britain is run yearly in association with Active Working CIC. Aimed at desk workers, the campaign encourages to ‘move more and sit less’ to improve their fitness and health. Held on the 28th of April this year, their challenges have inspired us to consider the importance of tracking steps when improving your fitness.
We found that most of our members track their steps, but not as many value the step counts’ importance.
If you’ve got an exercise watch or a fitness app on your phone then more than likely it counts your steps, or at least calculates it approximately. The figure should be taken with a pinch of salt as the number can often increase while sat at a desk without having stood up.
Think back to when pedometers could be shaken to increase the number, although the technology in our fitness watches and apps these days have advanced. For those of you who purposefully go for walks to increase your step count, or work at desks and struggle with hitting your step goal then this inaccuracy can feel like it dilutes your achievement.
Don’t let that discourage you!
Despite the step count number not being exact, what it can give you is a rough idea of how much energy and calories you’re burning as part of your NEAT.
NEAT stands for Non-exercise Activity Thermogenesis, which accounts for the energy you burn doing things like walking, working, typing, performing menial tasks and fidgeting. It excludes anything burnt during sleep, eating or exercise.
Knowing your NEAT level is essential to improving your fitness. This is where many Personal Trainers begin helping you improve fitness as it’s something that will form a healthy lifestyle habit.
It’s something that will complement your training days by helping you continue to burn calories even on rest days.
The On Your Feet Britain campaign provides all sorts of tips for those who are sedentary during the day. It’s a great place to start if you and your colleagues want to improve fitness. We’ve suggested a few of our own tips below that you can implement for life, not just for On Your Feet Britain!
- Take the stairs to your office not the lift
- Park further from work
- Arrange walking meetings
- Walk to a location on your lunch break or have it standing
- Place your bin a walking distance from your desk
- Set stand reminders on your phone or fitness watch for every hour
- Pace during phone calls
You can get involved with On Your Feet Britain here…
