{"id":3457,"date":"2022-05-13T10:22:03","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T08:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/happybodies.nl\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=3457"},"modified":"2025-07-08T12:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T10:37:16","slug":"10000-steps-a-day-necessary-or-nonsense","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/happybodies.nl\/en\/blogs\/10000-steps-a-day-necessary-or-nonsense\/","title":{"rendered":"10,000 steps a day, necessary or nonsense?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"section section-pageheader-new has-image\">\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/happybodies.nl\/app\/uploads\/2025\/06\/HB-foto-8.png\" alt=\"\">\n                <div class=\"container\">\n            <div class=\"content-holder\">\n                                    <h1>10,000 steps a day, necessary or nonsense?<\/h1>\n                \n                            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n            <div  class=\"section has-colorscheme-1  section-large-content for-homepage\">\n            <div class=\"container\">\n                <div class=\"content-holder\">\n                    <h3><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">10,000 steps a day, necessary evil or nonsense?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">You&#039;ve probably heard of the rule that you should take at least 10,000 steps every day? This statement is not directly reflected in the advice that the government gives us. They use a completely different exercise standard. We will explain exactly how it works with those 10,000 steps per day in this article.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">What is the 2021 exercise standard?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">The exercise standard refers to a minimum effort per week that is required to exercise healthily. The exercise standard has been the same in the Netherlands for a number of years:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Adults: At least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise 5 days a week<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Children: Do at least one hour of moderate-intensity exercise every day.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">At least twice a week some form of strength training<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">These 30 minutes do not have to be in one go, but can also be divided into three times of 10 minutes or, for example, two times of 15 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">Moderate intensity exercise<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Moderately intensive exercise sounds a bit vague of course. It would be easier if it was clearly described what this entails. <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">The bottom line is that you should at least achieve an increased heart rate. You should still be able to talk. If you can&#039;t do that, then that&#039;s more than moderately intensive. Of course, it&#039;s not wrong to do more than moderately intensive exercise.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">The exercise standard is a minimum, not a maximum.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Some examples of activities that fall under moderate-intensity exercise:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Walking<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Misuse<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Heavier household tasks such as vacuuming, cleaning.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Swimming<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">Origin 10,000 steps<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">The Japanese physician Dr. Yoshiro Hatano is the inventor of the 10,000 steps rule. Dr. Hatano researched the correlation between exercise and health. He translated the minimum exercise he considered necessary for a healthy life into the number of steps you need to take. According to this Japanese physician, we humans take an average of 6,000 steps per day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">These are the steps we take in our normal life. Think of all the movements you make in a day, for example:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">From your bed to the bathroom<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Walking through your house<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">To get the mail<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Doing the shopping.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">According to Dr. Hatano, an extra half hour of exercise every day would be just enough to meet his exercise standard. A half hour of walking is about 4000 steps.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">6000+4000= 10.000 <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Now the problem is that in the Netherlands we don&#039;t take 6,000 steps a day, but rather 2,000 to 3,000. So if those 10,000 steps are the &quot;holy grail&quot;, then we really need to walk a lot more.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Fortunately, that is not necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">Why is walking healthy?<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">The moment you start moving or walking, you put your body to work:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Your heart rate increases<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Your breathing increases<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Your body transports oxygen and sugar to your muscles<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Your blood circulation also increases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">It stabilizes your blood sugar levels<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">And that last one is very good. When you move or do sports, your body moves 25 liters of blood per minute through your body. Normally that is only 5 liters of blood per minute. Prof. physiologist Maria Hopman: &quot;Because the blood is pumped so hard through your blood vessels, these blood vessels are stimulated and they release all kinds of beneficial substances. That helps against arteriosclerosis and helps keep your organs such as your heart, brain and kidneys young.&quot; Our body is also made to move. In prehistoric times we were hunter-gatherers. Our genes still date from that time. However, we no longer have to move as much, we get our food in the supermarket and we mainly do our work sitting down. Maria Hopman, who is researching the connection between activity, inactivity and the development of chronic diseases: &quot;We can now link 30 chronic diseases to our lack of activity, or lack of exercise.&quot; Do we really have to take 10,000 steps?<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">The short answer is \u201cNo\u201d. But it is not bad to walk that much. If you look at this rule from the perspective of being healthy longer (read: dying later), research by I-Min Lee, professor of epidemiology at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, shows that the magic limit is 7,500 steps. According to this research, people who take more steps than 7,500 would not live longer. You can also argue that you do not need to take extra steps to exercise moderately intensively. After all, one step is not the same as another. At Happy Bodies you always train for only 35 minutes, strength and cardio combined, so you have a continuously increased heart rate. In this way you take two elements from the exercise standard in one go: 35 minutes of (moderately) intensive training and strength training. If you come to the gym twice a week, you have already trained for 70 minutes (out of 150) and you have met the strength training standard 100%.<\/span><\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n    <div  class=\"section has-colorscheme-1  section-cta for-cta is-variation-one\">\n        <div\n            class=\"cta-holder show_overlay has-overlay\" style=\"--overlay-color: rgba(10,10,10,0.65)\";>\n                                                <img decoding=\"async\"\n                        class=\"none default has-image-mobile-default\"\n                        src=\"https:\/\/happybodies.nl\/app\/uploads\/2025\/05\/unnamed-2-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n                            \n                        <div class=\"inner\">\n                                    <p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 24pt;\">Slim &amp; fit in 2 x 35 minutes every 10 days<\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt;\">Plan a <a href=\"https:\/\/happybodies.nl\/en\/free-trial-training\/\">free trial training<\/a> or do the online <a href=\"https:\/\/happybodies.nl\/en\/membership-test\/\">membership test<\/a> and discover in 1 minute which program suits you. Would you rather come and have a look first? 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