What they preach

Aim for 5000-15000 steps a day. This is a good dose of NEAT. NEAT stands for non-exercise activity thermogenesis . It’s all the ways you burn energy outside of exercise and your basic metabolism. It has physical and mental benefits too.

What I practice

My unconventional take is that it is possible to be active without having to fixate on number of steps covered in a day.

I don’t bother with the 5000 to 10000 step a day rule.

First up, I don’t wear a step tracker. No smart watches or smartwatches or pedometers.

I think of being being active every chance I get. Even if it means shunning convienience.


Here are a few simple ways to achieve this:

Why take a car or bike, if you can walk. This is obvious but most folks take bikes even to venture out 100 meters. I am guilty of this too. I take the bike to the gym to save time. I coach at 5 am and 6 am in person. And I rush home to coach online at 7 am. This is 6 times a week. I like to stay till about 6:55 am at the gym and then rush the 300 meters to home. The bike cuts this down. My point being convenience will trump friction in some cases.

Take the cycle instead of bike or car. This is something I am toying around with.

Why sit if you can walk or pace about? I realise a lot of thinking and talking can happen while walking. So I do this. I also stand more than I sit. And i do prefer lying back and reclining while I work instead of sitting. Sitting with the muscles around the hip remaining in flexion for hours a day is a counterproductive stimulus.

My lifestyle is amply aided by coaching for 2-3 hours a day. I am on my feet during these hours. This is in addition to my training. While I don’t focus on steps or moving about too much while I train, my focus is two fold: Make it as challenging as possible and cover as much range with as much stability as I can.

Take the stairs. Unless I am hurt or carrying something unwieldy up more than a flight of stairs, my preferred mode is almost always taking the stairs. Even if its more than 5 floors.

Carry anything and everything you are capable of carrying. I move groceries, gym equipment, bags, 15 kg bags of whey protein, steel pipes, scrap metal and anything that needs carrying

Chores like cleaning my car, bike, cycles, gym equipment or even the gym. I don’t schedule this stuff. But I greedily try to gobble these up and do these.

Aimlessly walking around. I dig this. I don’t do enough of it. Part of it is environment. Part of it is also schedule.

Takeaway

This, like my post about sleep, isn’t meant to be a guide for everyone. And I am not chasing very low body fat levels. This is just me being active, maintaining a basic capacity for exertion and not have to huff or pant on a moderate hike. For cardio, I like to jump rope and spend time on an air bike. This is in addition to the cardiovascular benefits of strength training which is underrated.