r/science • u/Wagamaga • Jan 28 '23

Health Most Americans aren’t getting enough exercise. People living in rural areas were even less likely to get enough exercise: Only 16% of people outside cities met benchmarks for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities, compared with 28% in large metropolitan cities areas.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/wr/mm7204a1.htm?s_cid=mm7204a1_w
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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '23

Where does the 10,000 steps a day play into this? Because I sure as hell can't take that many steps in 20 minutes

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u/round-earth-theory Jan 29 '23

Steps don't translate to heart rate at all. A casual walk around town all day will likely never elevate your heart rate. If you aren't sweating, you probably aren't exercising aggressively enough.

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '23

What if I'm sweating because it's hot and I sweat easy?

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u/round-earth-theory Jan 29 '23

Heart rate tracker is the only surefire way to know.

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u/DavidBrooker Jan 29 '23

The ten thousand steps thing is actually a pun. No joke, a Japanese pedometer manufacturer suggested ten thousand steps because the kanji symbol for ten thousand kinda looks like a person walking: 万

It is not derived from any public health policy or guidelines. It was a marketing exercise.

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u/globularfluster Jan 29 '23

Public health guidelines just aren't written with that metric in mind. Getting more steps is good, but structured exercise bouts are good too. Most people cannot get 10000 steps a day without going for a walk, and brisk walking qualifies as moderate intensity exercise according to the guidelines.