F45, CrossFit, Pilates, and HIIT training all have cult followings.

But the best kept secret when it comes to living a healthy and active lifestyle might have been under our noses the entire time.

They're calling it walking.

Apparently, you just get your ass off the couch and move your legs in a forward-like motion, propelling yourself into the space in front of your lifeless body.

Most of us are taking fewer steps than our ancestors did and for a myriad of reasons.

We drive to the office, work in front of a computer screen, and spend our downtime melted into our couch.

And that's turning into a big problem.

Recent research has found that physical inactivity can increase the risk of chronic disease like diabetes and cancer.

And it's now the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality.

So I lift weights regularly, and I consider myself an active person.

But if there's one area I definitely ignore, it's cardio.

I rarely hit the treadmill.

I don't run.

And my average steps per day for the past three years has been less than 4,000.

I wanna finally add more movement into my daily routine.

And so I'm gonna walk 10,000 steps a day for 30 days, starting now.

So we've all heard the recommendation to get 10,000 steps a day in, but where does this advice actually come from?

It turns out the number has more to do with marketing than science.

In the 1960s, the Japanese company responsible for the first commercial pedometer released a new step counter with the slogan, let's walk 10,000 steps a day.

The slogan was catchy and easy to remember, so it stuck.

Recent studies have shown that just 4,000 steps a day leads to better health outcomes.

But 7,500 steps is ideal for most people.

Call me an overachiever, but I'm still gonna stick with the 10,000 step goal.

I'm gonna be tracking all my health data closely over the next 30 days to see if I notice any significant changes.

I'll be weighing in daily, reporting my blood pressure, and tracking all other data points to see how I go.

One thing that was clear as I made my way through the first week is that it's not always easy to find the time.

It is surprisingly difficult to get 10,000 steps into a day.

I keep finding myself checking my tracker at 8 p.m. at night and realizing that I'm 2,000 or 3,000 steps short.

And so what I've had to do is go out after dark and just walk around my neighborhood, which isn't creepy at all.

Something is definitely gonna have to change.

I'm definitely gonna have to switch up my routine, figure out a way to get my steps in early, because I definitely can't keep this up.

One of the things I've done to help me track my steps is to get a smartwatch.

I got an Apple Watch, and it uses a combination of GPS tracking and arm motion when estimating distance and steps.

If you happen to use a wheelchair, it can also track pushes.

It's not 100% accurate 100% of the time.

I noticed a few times that my watch recorded steps while I was asleep, but it gets close enough.

Of course, you can track steps with your phone, but I don't like to bring mine with me wherever I go.

So I find that I miss out on a lot of steps every day.

And as I'm learning so far, every step counts.

So right now it's 1044, and I have 9,800 steps, which means I need to walk around until I hit 10,000 steps.

It's my life.

♪♪♪ 9,935 steps.

Almost there.

I got 10,010 steps.

10,010, you're an overachiever.

Hey there, just wanted to let you know that my habits course is open for enrollment.

I know, it's exciting.

We'll get back to the video in just a second, but I want to let you know all about it because it's only going to be open for one week.

Simple Habits is your step-by-step plan to choosing, forming, and sticking to habits for life.

I'm teaching you everything that I've learned through a lifetime of trial and error, through the dozens of habit experiments that I've done on this YouTube channel, and the proven research behind human behavior change.

After you finish the course, you'll be clear on the life that you want to create for yourself, the habits that will get you there, and you'll be equipped with the strategies and tools to get these habits to stick.

Come join over 5,000 other students by going to slowgrowth.com slash simplehabits, or even easier, click the little link in the description below this video.

Enrollment closes on March 10th, and then after that, it won't be open until later this year.

So I hope to see you there.

I think the one thing that I'm realizing is that my life up until now, at least over the past couple of years, has been quite sedentary.

So I'm not getting up and moving a whole lot.

When I start my work, I sit down for eight hours or 10 hours, and I rarely get up.

I'll get up to go to the bathroom, to make another cup of coffee, maybe to go to the gym, but my steps and my movement overall has actually been quite low.

I really want to make a commitment to get in my steps as early as possible so it's not this thing that I'm always thinking about, like, oh my God, am I gonna have to walk at 11 p.m. at night again just to make sure I hit 10,000 steps?

I don't think that's the way to do this experiment.

I want to do it in a sustainable way, in a way that I might be able to carry on after the 30 days.

The first thing that really started to work for me was focusing on incidental exercise.

Incidental exercise is any movement done in small amounts that adds up over the course of the day.

We all have choices that we make each day that impact the amount of movement we get, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking the long way to the gym, or using a smaller cup of water so you have to refill it more often.

This kind of exercise requires less effort than carving out a dedicated hour to go to the gym and can be built off everyday activities and routines.

So I began making different choices every day and I started to notice a difference.

A few hundred steps here, a couple thousand steps there.

So this alone isn't getting me across the finish line, but it's still nice to see some progress.

Perhaps my biggest breakthrough was after having a chat with my friend, Josh.

The other day I had a work meeting.

I was like, do you want to go for a walk?

And the guy was open to it.

And then we got close to the post office.

I'm like, do you mind if I actually pick up my parcel as well?

And so.

You know what?

I've actually got to move apartments.

And so if you could come by, that would be great.

As obvious as it sounds,

I never really thought about taking work meetings and calls while walking.

The way we typically think about meetings is that they're around a conference table or in front of a video screen, but they don't have to be.

Phone calls are so important to stay connected, especially when you have friends that are all over the place like I'm in Melbourne, you're in Sydney.

I've got friends everywhere.

I might as well do it whilst I'm walking to get up my steps.

So first thing in the morning, if I had some calls to make,

I'd grab my AirPods, put on my sneakers and get moving.

Yeah, so I was thinking actually about our next course launch.

And for someone that has a totally unhealthy relationship with productivity and perfectionism, this was a really satisfying way for me to reach my goal.

So I just had a quick morning call, but this time instead of sitting at my desk,

I decided to go for a walk.

Call ended up being 45 minutes.

So I got a lot of steps.

So far today, I've got 4,800 steps in when I typically only get 900 at this point.

There were a couple of times in the middle of a conversation with Natalie that I asked if we could actually take a walk around the neighborhood instead of sitting down on the couch or in my office.

So we'd put on our sneakers and walk around the neighborhood, finishing our chat.

Hey, Nat, let me see the belly.

Wow, look at that belly.

Do you like it?

I love it.

One thing that I have started to do recently that has helped out immensely is to really slow down and try to actually enjoy each and every walk that I take.

It hasn't always been easy.

Early on, I'd gotten into the habit of rushing through my steps.

I'd find myself in that awkward place somewhere between walking and jogging, like I'm holding it in while rushing to the bathroom.

But once I started to slow down,

I could take in the joy of my walks.

I started casually listening to history podcasts.

I listened to walking meditations.

I walked silently around my neighborhood.

And I explored new hikes and trails around Sydney.

And this has honestly become my favorite thing about this city.

There are dozens of beautiful hikes, from the bush to the beaches.

There are stunning views and moments of complete immersion in nature that you don't even realize you're in the city.

And just as I started to find the joy in walking,

I also started to notice some results.

I've exercised more.

I've climbed more flights, done more steps, and had more walking and running distance.

The calories burned has gone up from 470 calories a day to 650 plus per day.

I've got these scabs that have started to form.

They're pretty small, but scabs nonetheless.

You can see it, oh yeah, look at that.

Yeah, I think that this might just give you a little bit of an indicator as to the amount of steps that I typically get on a given day, because my feet have clearly never been through something like this before.

If my feet end up on any of these dirty smut websites,

I'm never gonna forgive you guys.

So I've just had one of the easiest days yet, blowing past 10,000 steps with little effort at all.

I haven't gone on a single walk all day.

And the reason I've been able to get so many steps is because I've just been doing household chores all day.

When I have these days when I'm just naturally moving about,

I'm doing chores, I'm picking up things around the house,

I'm running out for groceries, going to the gym, then my steps start to add up and it starts to feel a whole lot more effortless.

If I'm being completely honest, just because there were days that felt effortless and days where I enjoyed my walks, doesn't mean it wasn't still a little bit annoying.

I am really short on my steps, so I decided to walk to dinner tonight.

Nat is gonna be driving and meeting me there.

I just can't have another late night where I'm walking at like nine, 10 o'clock at night.

Even though I see the value in walking more every day, it feels unrealistic to hit even 5,000 steps a day, let alone 10,000.

There are days when work is busier than normal and days that I just can't be bothered to leave the house.

And at least during this experiment, these have been the days where I've found myself aimlessly wandering around my neighborhood or living room deep into the night.

So I did it, it's over, it's done.

I walked 10,000 steps every day for 30 days and drum roll.

I feel a lot better, I do.

I feel a lot better now that I have gotten this extra cardio in, even if that cardio was as simple as walking more.

Now let's take a look at the data.

Obviously my number of steps taken went up.

I averaged 12,140 steps per day, and I walked a total of 364,000 steps over the course of the month.

My weight remained pretty steady throughout, starting and ending the month at 160 pounds.

If all things had remained equal, you would have expected my weight to go down with the additional calories burned, but my sister was visiting for three weeks during this experiment.

I know it's a terrible excuse, but I ate out and drank a lot more than I typically would have.

And finally, the additional steps didn't change any other data points like my blood pressure or resting heart rate, which were at healthy levels to begin with.

So here are my intentions going forward.

I don't intend to hit 10,000 steps every single day.

I just don't think that's a realistic goal for me personally, but I do intend to walk more, and I do wanna try to increase my daily average to 7,500 steps per day.

Some days will be less than that, some days will be more.

And I plan to reach this goal by repeating some of the things that work best for me over the past 30 days.

That's walking whenever possible, even when it's more convenient to drive.

That's walking while taking calls, especially in the morning, and also trying to slow down and enjoy my walks as much as possible.

Instead of rushing through them like I'm about to shit my pants.

I hope you liked this video.

I do lots of 30-day experiments on this channel, so if you wanna get more, click subscribe and turn on notifications for future videos.

And you can also subscribe to my newsletter to get updates about future 30-day challenges so you can join me on the next one.

Find the links to everything in the description below this video.

Thanks for watching.

They're calling it walking.

Apparently, you just get your ass off the couch and move your legs in a forward-like motion, propelling yourself into the space in front of your lifeless body.