BITESIZE | The Life Changing Magic Of Walking for Your Health, Happiness & Relationships | Dr Courtney Conley #686

Rangan Chatterjee (0:00)

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Welcome to Feel Better, Live More, Bitesize, your weekly dose of inspiration, insights, and practical ideas to help you live well and thrive. Each episode brings you some of my favorite moments, useful tools, and inspiring ideas from the many incredible conversations I've had on my podcast. Today's Bitesize is from Episode 660 of the podcast with Dr Courtney Conley, Movement Specialist and co-author of the best-selling book, Walk, Your Life Depends On It. We unpack how many steps a day the research shows we really need to make a difference to our mood and our health. Courtney shares some simple ways we can get more from every walk, and she reveals how something as simple as walking together could strengthen our relationships as well as our health.

You talk about the 10,000-step urban legend.

Courtney Conley (2:22)

Yes.

Rangan Chatterjee (2:23)

You describe it as a persistent myth that has actually had a deleterious effect and discouraged many people from walking because this daily step goal feels out of reach to many. Is 10,000 steps a myth?

Courtney Conley (2:37)

It is. It's actually based on a, we call it a marketing hangover. So in the 1960s, there was a Japanese company that produced a pedometer called a Manpoke, which actually means 10,000 step meter.

So it was more designed just as a marketing campaign. And then what's really wild is that that has been adopted as the step count that we should all be trying to reach, when in fact there is no science behind that number. And I think when people think 10,000 steps, it can be very daunting. But when you look at the science, it's actually much less.

Rangan Chatterjee (3:13)

And I think you've quoted research in the book, saying that even going from 2,500 to 3,800 steps a day gives you some benefits.

Courtney Conley (3:21)

Reduces all-cause mortality by 7%, which is, I have plenty of patients that have been in chronic pain, where these are the conversations that we're having, where anything is better than nothing. So I think that's very encouraging for people that live on that end of the spectrum, where they've been in chronic pain for a while, they're afraid to put their foot on the ground, and it's, okay, we're going to take what we've termed a micro walk, which is five minutes, which gives you about 500 steps.

And it builds confidence in people's movement. They start to trust their body again, and I think at that level, that really is priority.

Rangan Chatterjee (3:59)

So what does the science tell us about the amount of steps we need to gain certain health benefits?

Courtney Conley (4:05)

So it's very individualistic. So depending upon where you start, what your baseline is. But if you were to look at just an overall number, where are we going to maximize longevity benefit? You're looking anywhere from 7,000 to 8,000 steps.

Rangan Chatterjee (4:20)

7,000 to 8,000 steps.

So we'll come back to 10,000 steps in just a minute, because I actually have quite liked that as a guideline, but I totally understand where you're coming from, which is that can be off-putting to people. And some people might go, well, I can't reach 10,000, so what's the point? Let's make it super accessible for people. If you add 1,000 more steps to your daily step count, what could that potentially do for us?

Courtney Conley (4:54)

So if you were, if we were gonna throw out some numbers, if you were to get to 3,800 steps per day, you can reduce your risks of getting dementia by 25%.