Walking is one of the greatest and easiest ways to keep a check on your health. Not only is it something you can do at and unhurried pace, it doesn’t even require any special training to get started. What the best is you can just go outside and do a walk-n-talk with friends; it’s the perfect social work-out. Unfortunately, most of us don’t get as many steps in as we should, but just how many steps you take each day?

Why is it important to reach your recommended daily step count?

Moving our bodies frequently has countless benefits; from improving our blood circulation and heart health, to supporting weight loss goals and lowering the risk of certain chronic diseases.

Measuring your walking activity levels by steps is an excellent way of ensuring that you’re getting enough physical exercise on each-and-every day. The good point is that it not only includes general walking, but other things such as aerobic workouts, running or yoga all count towards your daily step count. Have an active job where you’re on your feet most of the day? That counts, too.

Most of you might have heard that walking 10,000 steps a day is ideal. Although that’s a good amount to aim for, more or less steps might be a better fit for you depending on certain factors such as your health, age or physical ability.

Recommended Steps per Day by Age:

Should everyone be aiming for 10,000 steps every day? No.
In reality, even though 10,000 steps sounds like a good benchmark to consider for someone active, you should really take age into consideration as well. Wondering exactly how many steps you should be taking per day for your age? The following is a breakdown of how many steps you should be aiming for each day according to age, and level of activeness:

1. Recommended daily step counts for under 18yrs – As a general rule, the younger you are the more steps you tend to need to do. Once the kids leave crawling and have learnt to walk properly and have fully developed bones, they all can go for a minimum of 6,000 steps a day. This could be closer to double, like 13500 steps, if your kids play sports regularly, run around the playground or are just generally very active.

2. Recommended daily steps for adults (19yrs – 60yrs) – As soon as you touch the adulthood phase, your daily step count will decrease naturally as you will become a student or enter the workforce phase of your life. 10,000 steps is still a good figure to aim for, however, if your step count is closer to 7,000-8000, that’s okay, too. If you are regular at the gym or are trying to lose some weight then your step count should be 13,000+steps in a day.

3. Recommended daily steps for adults over 60yrs – As you get older and older, your bones tend to become more fragile and your fitness tends to decline too. This totally doesn’t mean that you can get away with doing no exercise. Reaching your daily step count is still very important for your overall health and you’ll need to aim for somewhere between 3,000 – 10,000 steps per day depending on your activity levels and health conditions.