We often hear that you need to take 10,000 steps a day to be healthy. But for cardiologist François Carré, we already have benefits with much less.
10,000 steps are ingrained in our collective unconscious as the ultimate goal for good health. However, they have no scientific basis, according to Professor François Carré, cardiologist and sports doctor at Rennes University Hospital. “It’s a point-to-line marketing approach.“, he says. The origin dates back to the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, when a pedometer company chose to name their model “Manpo-kei”, which literally translates as “the 10,000 step measurer” because it struck people’s minds. It was this stroke of marketing genius that transformed a simple commercial name into a global health standard, while it was originally just an advertising slogan to encourage Japanese to move more The idea of 10,000 steps has spread in France with formidable efficiency, helped by the advent of smartphones and connected watches which have established this figure as a daily “gold medal”.
Contrary to popular belief, the World Health Organization has never validated this rule. The doctor also points out the inconsistency of the calculation: to reach 10,000 steps in 30 minutes (the minimum recommended time of physical activity per day), you would have to walk at 10 km/h, or a running pace. The challenge is therefore not to reach an arbitrary figure, but to break out of a sedentary lifestyle.
The volume of steps is not everything and the way you move is crucial. For walking to become a real health tool, it must make you slightly out of breath. Professor Carré offers a simple test to find out if you are in the right rhythm: “It’s called: I can talk, but I can’t sing“. It is, for example, the hurried pace that we adopt when we are late. It is this acceleration of the heart rate which protects the arteries in the long term.
The actual minimum number of steps to take per day is around 7,000 steps per day at a good pace, which corresponds to the recommended 30 minutes of daily activity. Professor Carré wants to be reassuring: “The 7,000 steps do not have to be done in a row; for example, you can do several blocks of 1,500 steps. You simply need to have taken at least 7,000 steps at the end of the day.“The important thing is to integrate these steps into a daily routine, because the benefits are total.”Moving in this way reduces the risk of 40 chronic diseases (Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart attacks), but also drastically improves mental health. Above all, it’s a virtuous circle: moving better allows you to eat better and, above all, to sleep better.“, insists the cardiologist.
Surprising fact: for the same duration, walking is more protective for a woman’s heart than for a man’s. If the exact reasons are still being studied, Professor Carré evokes a biological reactivity specific to women, certain receptors of which react better to exercise.
In addition to daily walking, the professor advises adding muscle strengthening, especially during menopause to counter the wasting of muscles, responsible for falls. His tip is to go down the stairs, which works the muscles deeply without getting out of breath. Finally, don’t forget sleep, essential to “reset” the brain: “Sleep is not wasted time“, he insists. Moving well, eating well and sleeping well form an inseparable tripod to protect your central “computer” and your longevity.
