10,000 steps... really?

I know you've heard it: You need to do 10,000 steps a day.

But is it true?

Basically, no.

Here's why...

Firstly, the "10,000 steps a day" was a number pulled out of thin air as an advertising campaign to sell pedometers back in the 60's.

No science to back it up. Just a clever marketing tactic.

Secondly, everyone is different. 10,000 steps for someone who's overweight and struggles to walk is not the same as 10,000 steps for a skinny teenager. And the fitter you get, the easier it becomes and the more efficient you get at it.

Thirdly, not all steps are equal. This ties in with point 2 really. 10,000 steps carrying extra weight (be it bodyweight or an external load) is MUCH harder than walking unencumbered.

In the same way walking uphill is much harder than walking on the flat.

So how many steps should you be doing?

Really, it's a range not an exact number target, but actual research suggests there's a lower limit of around 7,000 steps a day.

That's enough activity to lower the risk of all-cause mortality.

Humans are meant to be moving for the majority of the day, not sedentary, so the more active you are, the better your health, and for most people and those who don't "train" recording your steps is the most obvious measure of activity levels.

Is there an upper limit?

Yes.

You see, there's only so much energy your body can produce each day and that energy is needed for recovery, repair and immune function as well as activity. So if you're using it all up on excessive amounts of activity, those other processes will suffer as there's not enough energy to go around.

You'll end up feeling exhausted, even just from walking.

The Metabolic Ceiling

It's been shown that there's a limit to how much energy your body can produce in a day, and when studied, those who did more activity didn't actually burn significantly more energy.

So you can overdo it.

The limit of how much energy you can burn in a day is actually around 2.5x your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate).

You can obviously exceed this if you do more activity than the upper limit, you won't just grind to a halt like a car that's run out of petrol, but it'll have a knock-on effect to your recovery and health.

It's hard to figure out your upper limit "steps"-wise, but you can use HRV to monitor your recovery levels and base your daily activity on that.

Essentially, if you feel tired and lethargic, and lacking in energy, or are getting ill more frequently, you're probably overdoing it.

It's a good idea to simply alternate between your lower and upper limits on a day to day basis (and ideally, base it on your recovery each day).

Also remember that it's not just steps that count (and that not all steps are equal).

Your best bet is to track your energy expenditure across all modalities ("steps", strength training, general movement and/or whatever other activities you do each day).

So, basically, you don't need to do 10,000 steps a day, however, that can be a good target to begin with if you're not doing any other training.

But as I've said before, given the choice between 30 minutes of walking or 30 minutes of meaningful exercise (resistance training), I'd almost always opt for the latter.

Don't sacrifice gym time in order to "get more steps in!"

Sign up at MoveBetter.Club for MY preferred training styles, especially if you hate the idea of hitting the gym and lifting weights like a bodybuilder!

Reach out if you want more help :)

Mark

Sleep to Lose Fat

Please don't misunderstand me - sleep is NOT the magic pill to losing weight, BUT it does have a huge impact on your fat loss efforts.

You see, in a study aptly named "insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity", they ran some tests.

Essentially, they took a group of overweight people, gave them the same amount of food and the same activity levels (mostly sedentary, and we'll get to that in a moment).

The only difference was, one group spent 8.5 hours in bed, and the other group spent 5.5 hours in bed (actual sleep times were about 7hrs 25mins and 5hrs 15mins respectively).

By the end of the study, BOTH groups lost about 3kg in weight (makes sense since the calorie deficit was similar across all participants).

BUT...

The group who slept only 5.5 hours lost 80% of that 3kg from muscle tissue and only 20% of it from fat mass.

The 8.5 hour sleep group however lost about 50% of the weight from muscle tissue and 50% from fat mass.

If you're in a calorie deficit, you can always expect to lose both muscle tissue and fat mass, but the ratio between the two is what makes all the difference.

In simple numbers, the 5.5 hour group lost about 0.6kg of fat, whereas the 8.5 hour group lost about 1.5kg of fat - that's nearly 3 times the amount!

Not to mention that losing muscle tissue is NOT something you should be striving for as it'll hinder your ability to burn more fat going forwards!

So, if body recomposition is your goal (losing body fat and gaining a bit of muscle), then SLEEP is your best friend!

Remember, these guys were on the same diet and activity levels, the only difference was the amount of sleep they were getting.

If you still think sleep isn't important for fat loss, I don't know what else I can do to convince you!

This also highlights why tracking just bodyweight is an absolute waste of time.

You could be destroying your muscle tissue and keeping hold of most of your fat, yet still think you're making progress because the number on the scales is going down.

Please, track measurements and body fat %, NOT just weight.

To make things worse, the 5.5 hour group also experienced more hunger, so if you're in the real world this would likely lead to more snacking and poorer food choices further hindering your fat loss efforts.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, the participants in the study were mainly sedentary - there was no real exercise protocol in place.

Since we know that resistance training will also affect the ratio between fat and muscle breakdown (in favour of more fat being used and muscle tissue retained) in a calorie deficit, it's fair to say that both groups would likely have had better ratios if they'd been training properly too.

It's unlikely that you could stop ALL muscle tissue being lost, but the ratios would be even better for the 8.5 hour group!

Going back to your fat loss efforts, it becomes clear that the key take homes here are:

1. You need to be in a calorie deficit to lose weight
2. You need adequate sleep to ensure more of that weight is coming from fat rather than lean tissue
3. You should be resistance training to further tip the scales in your favour in terms of where that "weight" is coming from

So no, sleep is NOT the magic pill, but it sure as hell will help in your fat loss efforts.

Check out my other posts for tips on how to improve both your sleep quantity and quality for the best results.

Reach out if you want more help :)

Mark

www.MoveBetter.Club

Training for recovery?!

This may sound counter-intuitive, but you can (and should) use workouts as recovery.

Yes, a workout can actually help you recover faster than just resting!

It's not all about massages, foam rolling and breathing exercises.

For some people, they never train hard enough for this to be an issue (those people need to start adding in a couple of high intensity sessions per week), but for others, ALL of their workouts are high intensity, and that's a problem.

Not all workouts should be high intensity

"Go hard or go home" is the mantra of the steroid-infused bodybuilder with a lack of blood flow to the brain!

A light workout the day after a heavy/high intensity workout can:

• Help the body shift into a recovery state (that's when the body grows and adapts in response to the hard workouts)

• Stimulate blood flow to the muscles (which will help them recover faster)

• Help build resilience (you need to be able to function after heavy workouts and this will build your capacity to do so)

• Improve breathing and movement quality by keeping you moving and not allowing you to stiffen up as is often the case in the days after a hard workout

• Make you FEEL better - it should give you more energy, not make you feel drained after the workout.

So, how do you do a recovery workout?

Just follow these simple rules:

• Keep it short - a 2-hour run isn't recovery, it's more stress. Aim for 20-40 minutes

• Keep it light - if you're doing "cardio", keep your heart rate reasonably low - about 60-75% of your max HR (think walking uphill at a reasonable pace or a light jog)

• Mix up your movements to work mobility and get every joint mobilised, and get blood flow into all muscles

• Spend a bit more time on any areas that feel like they need it - anything that feels particularly tight or sore

1. Start with some light mobility work and focus on your breathing as you do

2. Then aim for 10-20 minutes of light work - a circuit of easy exercises is probably best, just remember you're aiming for movement and recovery, not as many reps as you can in 60 seconds! Keep your heart rate in the target range and if it goes above, take a rest and dial it back a bit.

3. Then add in 2-3 sets of power or strength work to keep the nervous system stimulated (but not too much). A couple of sets of 8-10 reps per side of something like a standing cable rotation or med ball side throw would be perfect.

4. Finish with a few minutes of breathing exercises - just lay on the floor and focus on breathing as slowly as possible to get your heart rate as low as you can.

If you can alternate high intensity workouts with these recovery workouts, you're setting yourself up for success. Over-training shouldn't be an issue and that means better results long-term.

Don't train hard for days in a row, but you also shouldn't really need any days off - just do something light to aid recovery.

Be smart with your workouts. Use some to stimulate growth and adaptation (i.e. challenge yourself), and use others to aid in recovery, because recovery is where all of those adaptations occur.

No recovery = no adaptations. Which means all those hard workouts back to back are hours wasted and will actually make you feel worse!

The key to progress is to push yourself, then let your body recover. Rinse and repeat.

This will get better results for strength, fitness, muscle gain, fat loss and health.

If you need help getting some structure to your training, get in touch and let's talk.

Mark