Get Your Daily Steps In With These Walking Hacks—From Personal Trainers

The benefits of walking are many. Collecting your daily steps contributes to everyday health moments that support healthy aging—like getting enough quality sleep, keeping digestion smooth, and helping to manage stress and mental health. In the long term, walking promotes good heart health and brain function and could even help you live longer. But how many steps do you need to rack up each day to reap those bennies?

Getting in 10,000 daily steps has long been the advice of health and fitness experts, but newer research suggests that just 7,000 steps a day may be all it takes to help slash your risk for heart disease, certain cancers, type 2 diabetes, depressive symptoms, and risk of early death.

Even when you knock off a few thousand steps, reaching that goal each day can still feel like a chore—but it doesn’t have to! Try these expert-backed tricks for sneaking in more daily steps.

Meet the experts: Doug Sklar, C.P.T., founder of PhilanthroFIT in New York City; Albert Matheny, R.D., C.S.C.S., co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab.

Start Small

If you want to tack on more steps to your daily count, it’s a good idea to set smaller goals for yourself and work your way up. “As a general guideline, I’d recommend setting a target that is just slightly above your normal daily step count,” says Doug Sklar, C.P.T., founder of PhilanthroFIT in New York City.

So, if you consistently reach 4,500 daily steps, aim for 5,000 steps every day for a week.

Walk Everywhere

Within reason, of course (nobody is telling you to tackle your 10-mile commute on foot!). But you’d be surprised by how many walking opportunities you can find in a day when you decide to walk instead of drive. “If you’re at work and want a coffee, is the coffee shop something you can walk to instead of taking a two-minute car ride?” says Albert Matheny, R.D., C.S.C.S., co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab.

Plan your walks like you do your workouts and set aside an official block of time; you can even add it to your calendar for accountability and a reminder.

Make It a Date

Walking can be more fun with a pal, so recruit a friend, your partner, a relative, or even a neighbor for your daily jaunt. You get social time, which promotes good well-being and healthy aging, and you can make it a fun game to see who reaches 7,000 steps first (winner buys your recovery snack!).

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