Taking Steps to Better Health

Both of us were on vacation over the last few weeks, and that inspired us to test out pedometers. In case this word is entirely new to you, a pedometer is basically a little gadget that you attach to your belt or waistband. While you go about your business, the pedometer measures your steps—a silent but reasonably accurate recorder of your daily activity. Travel seemed like a good excuse to try a pedometer because we always feel we move around so much more when we’re away from home. When we return, we're often motivated to increase our normal activity level; but then inertia gets the best of us. So we thought measuring the difference between our activity away and at home might be an extra incentive to move around more in our regular lives.

We were headed to places that pretty much require you to walk a lot: Barbara to London and Pat to Disney World. We wanted to see just how hard it would be to hit the 10,000 steps a day (about five to six miles, depending on the size of your stride) that health experts say are essential to fitness. First step (no pun intended) was buying a pedometer. The array seemed bewildering, from pedometers that only counted steps to ones that recorded the time, calories expended and a few other things. We called Dr. Jon Schriner of the Michigan Center for Athletic Medicine for advice. “I wouldn’t go for all the bells and whistles,” he said. “You want steps and distance.” Schriner feels that once you go beyond these basics, other features are less accurate. He said to make sure the pedometer was vertical when we wore it because the device is spring-loaded and that’s the best position to measure movement.

The average person has a three-foot stride but everyone is slightly different and, as Schriner said, “10,000 little steps are not the same as 10,000 big steps.” You can measure your steps if you want more accuracy and figure out how many would make a mile. You can also gauge the pedometer’s accuracy by setting it at zero, walking 20 steps, and then checking to make sure it has recorded the right amount. To check the distance measurement, you might get in your car and test drive a walk on the speedometer. Compare that to the reading on your pedometer when you do the same thing on foot.

You can buy pedometers at a store that sells exercise equipment, where you can get the benefit of a salesperson’s expertise, or online, where you can match prices. Be wary of supercheap brands; a reliable pedometer should cost between $15 and $25, although some are much more expensive (usually the ones with all the bells and whistles). After some research, Barbara ordered the Yamax Digi-Walker SW-200 online from RYP Sports and set off across the pond. In Disney World, Pat borrowed a friend’s pedometer, the Accusplit Eagle 1020. Some highlights of our walking adventures:

Barbara: “Our first day in London was a Sunday, and my husband and I decided to spend it sauntering around Kensington Gardens, about a 20-minute walk from our hotel. I snapped the pedometer on as soon as I got dressed to capture every last movement, including the two flights of stairs to our hotel room. We walked all around the park, sprawled on the grass reading the papers and then walked back to our hotel. After a short nap, we walked to a restaurant about 10 minutes away. I didn’t think we had done that much—indeed, it felt like a pretty lazy day—but when I finally flipped open the pedometer, I saw that I had walked 22,314 steps. No wonder my feet hurt.”

Pat: “On a beautiful 80-degree June day in Orlando, Fla., I arose at 6:45 a.m. and clipped on my pedometer as I was getting ready for a day of chaperoning eighth-grade Girl Scouts at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. We entered the park as it opened at 9 a.m. Around 3 p.m., a group of us headed back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation at the pool and then went back to the park after dinner, around 7 p.m. We returned to the hotel around midnight. Total steps: 24,509.”