How do you do 10,000 steps a day when working in desk job?

[Littlemiss74]

I’m thinking of doing a charity challenge (Alzheimers Society) of 10,000 steps a day during September. I need to get back into regular exercise so I thought this might help give me an incentive.

I know to many people 10,000 steps a day is the norm but it isn’t for me. I work in a desk job 4 days a week and normally most of my steps during those 8 hours are to the kitchen & bathroom!

If you do 10,000 steps a day and have desk job please can you tell me how you do it?

So while a traditional potter's wheel might be going too far grin is there some way of doing some under-desk 'stepping'? Like a baby treadmill?

Yes it’s a thing! Search for ‘mini exercise bike’. Goes under your desk and you pedal it.

I get 10,000 a day in a desk job by doing the school/nursery run on foot and going out for either a walk or a run at lunchtimes.

If you live in a city, it’s easy. I used to walk to work in London, an hour each way. Mind you, I didn’t have kids then, so my time was my own.

Nowadays, WFH, I can still do 10,000 steps but I have to plan a bit more. I go out at 8am for an hour when my daughter is in nursery. This would usually have been my commute time if in the office. Then I go out later in the day to collect her, again on foot; and if I’ve managed to move about enough during the day (stairs, walking round the house), I’m at about the right number.

I changed my target to x number of active minutes per day - by active. I mean, enough to get my heart rate going! I don’t think me walking for an arbitrary number of steps is particularly helpful, and I either don’t have time to walk long enough to hit 10,000 or I end up going so slowly that I might as well be sat down! Whereas saying 20 mins before work, 20 mins at lunchtime, 20 mins in the evening doing something that gets my heart rate up is easier to achieve. And could include hard work in the garden/house if you have certain jobs to do.

Make sure your step Walker is accurate! My husband and I did exactly the same one day and there was 6,000 steps in the difference! His was obviously the higher one 😂

PS great charity

Walk children to school in morning and go for a walk in evening. Sometimes fit in a bit over lunch even if just laps outside house.
Note I do not walk 10000 steps a day but when I do this is how I achieve it

I go for a run before work, walk at lunchtime and quick walk after work. I have a stand up desk and try to walk a bit whilst on the phone. I very rarely sit down until dinner. Average about 12500 steps.

I do, on average 12,000. Walk to & from work, walk around the shops or park on dinner break & sometimes have a walk in the evening.

Break it up...half hour walk in the morning, half hour at lunch, half hour in the evening. If you are talking to someone on the phone - Talk and walk. Take the stairs not the lift, park in the far end of the carpark, go to the supersize supermarket. Meet a friend for a walk, not a coffee.

I was wondering this last week as well. We've just come back from a week in the Lakes, lots of walking so my step count was higher. I managed over 10,000 steps most days, but this was as a result of going for proper walks, and we were out all day. Home again this week, and I've probably averaged less than 1,000 a day. Can't use my commute to walk, as it's a half hour drive and there's no where further away to park due to the location. By the time I get home and we have dinner etc it's time to drive my son to his job, and definitely no time to fit in walking. I tried getting up earlier on Monday to walk on the treadmill for half an hour but even that only resulted in 4,000 steps. Just can't see how I'd fit it in.

Just the walking when I commute and toddling around does it for me. But I’m in London and can’t drive to work.

I find it really hard. At weekends I do 10000+ but weekdays I make an effort to walk for an hour in the evening (which has to fit around cooking dinner, helping the kids with their stuff etc) and even then I'm often only around 6000.

One thing we've discussed at work is away-from-screen meetings where you take your phone out with you and walk and talk. In practice, very few of my meetings are suitable for that and most of my work ties me to the laptop.

I work from home. I do either a 30-40 min run or walk before work and a 40 min walk at lunchtime. Then potentially one after work as well. I have been known to pace around the house if I haven’t been out enough

I generally do about 15,000 steps a day I think

PS should have said, I WFH. In the office I could rack up a lot more steps walking round the site during the day.

Thanks all, just reading through. Just to confirm I drive to the office on 3 days a week & wfh one day a week. We do have a dog so I have to get out for a walk at least once a day but nowhere near 10,000 steps in one walk usually on a week day.

I work from home 3 days a week. Most days I manage 10, 000 steps, as long as I can get out in the day for 30-40 minutes. I walk up to my allotment in the evenings, about a 3 mile round trip. Running up and down the stairs to the kitchen, down to the bottom of the garden a few times a day adds 500 or so.
When I go to the office its a 3 miles round trip and a walk at lunchtime and I’m done

I work full time in a desk job (mix of wfh and in the office) and average 15k steps a day.
I run around 30 miles a week, which makes up some of that, but most of it is going for long walks with the kids at weekends and just generally having an active lifestyle - ie I'll always walk to the shops rather than drive; I get out of the house for a short walk where I can; I find things to do in the evenings rather than sitting on the sofa.. that sort of thing.

Today, for example, I'm already on over 15k steps and I haven't done any exercise. But I've been to the park with the children, done the shopping, gone for a long hilly walk and then done a load of gardening and cleaning.

In term time it’s fairly easy to get to 10k steps if I do the school run, but I often walk round the block at lunchtime too. When I go to the office it’s harder though.

Walking meetings in the office - it’s standard for people to do laps of our office when having 121 chats

Following with interest, incidentally how far is 10000 steps approximately? I find it easy to get steps in when I wfh but working in the office its impossible.

@TheWeeDonkey

Following with interest, incidentally how far is 10000 steps approximately? I find it easy to get steps in when I wfh but working in the office its impossible.

10000 is about 8km. I get up early and walk about 1.5 hrs before work and do the same walk in the evening. I average over 25k steps per day. I work f/t at a desk so it's definitely not impossible!

Easily. Spin class at 6am, then walk to shops at lunch time. Treadmill at gym. Walking workouts on you tube.

according to my watch I walked more than 10 steps/9km today.
4k of this was an afternoon walk which took about 45 minutes.

At the start of the first lockdown I decided to do a minimum of 10,000 steps a day and haven't missed a day since. When we went back to working in the office it was a bit harder to fit it in but I always go for a walk at lunch time and we have an early evening walk either before or after dinner. I rarely do fewer than 15,000 a day now and on a weekend it's usually 20,000 a day.

Once you get going you can't stop, I can't imagine not doing it now, I'd feel sluggish and a bit of a failure if I missed out a day.

Good luck!

20 min walk in the morning and one in your lunchbreak. Hour walk to the supermarket or a run after work.
My IBS is horrific if I don't get enough steps in so I just suck it up and do it.

I know you drive at the moment. Is public transport involving a walk an option at all?
That's the only way I get mine in.