In February this year, the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that a brisk 11-minute walk could save us from an early death. Six months later, a new study suggested at least 3,967 steps a day (at no specified pace) was what we needed. And now the 11-minute walk has been doubled, with 22 minutes becoming the magic number, this time to offset the effects of sitting.
Since the need to walk 10,000 daily steps a day took off, we have become fixated on how far we go. Anyone who has used a fitness tracker has felt a pang of frustration being a few steps off target at the end of the day. In February, a few of us in the office wished each other a nice 11-minute walk on the way to get coffee across the street, knowing full well that with a coffee shop so close, we’d hardly make a dent.
