The earth wobbles. NASA scientists say the earth’s spin axis drifts around the poles, and since they started measuring, sometimes it wobbles by 37 feet. I find this comforting. If the earth wobbles, maybe it’s OK that I do too.
Apparently, wobbling is a way to find balance. I wobble on the yoga mat, I wobble on the hiking trail. I’m lucky that my feet are so big, because when I fall completely off balance the weight of my lower extremities pulls me upright like a Weeble. It turns out that for young and old, one of the easiest ways to restore balance is walking.
For optimal health, 10,000 steps a day is supposed to be the holy grail. How far is that? A person 5 feet tall typically walks 4 miles with 10,000 steps and hates the song Short People. I am 6 feet tall and walk 5 miles with 10,000 steps. I used to be 6 feet 1 inch tall, but I have compressed and believe this compression gives me greater density.
I’ve often been told I was unbalanced, and now it’s getting physical. But there is good news from Harvard Health: “walking can help build lower-body strength, an important element of good balance. Walking regularly can significantly help prevent wobbling by improving your balance and strengthening the lower body muscles that are crucial for stability.”
Do we really need 10,000 steps a day? Will that make me lose my wobble walk and live to 103? What happens with 5,000 steps?
I call legendary Santa Cruz movement guru Laurie Broderick-Burr. The 62-year-old yoga teacher is the fittest person I know.
She says, “First, let’s be clear that the 10,000 steps goal is not an evidence-based prescription. It was a marketing ploy.” She explains that the 1964 Tokyo Olympics coincided with the development of the pedometer, and the Japanese company Yamasa made a device named Manpo-kei, which translates to “10,000 steps meter.” The name was a marketing tool, and they campaigned to sell the world on the idea that 10,000 steps was the way to health, the fountain of youth, the elixir of immortality.
Broderick-Burr says numerous studies suggest one doesn’t have to get close to 10,000 steps to see health benefits. “The 10,000 mark is a great target to hit, but even if you can’t do that, the more you do, the more you increase your longevity.”
A 2023 study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, suggested 2,600 to 2,800 daily steps was enough to produce health benefits. A 2022 European Society of Cardiology study found that increasing our step count by 1,000-step increments may lead to corresponding 15% decreases in our all-cause mortality. They found that 3,867 steps a day started to reduce the risk of dying from any cause, and 2,337 steps a day reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. A meta-analysis of 17 different studies around the world shows the more you walk, the longer you’re going to live.
If you are young, you have boundless energy, the flexibility to adapt to anything, your brain is smarter than AI and you can balance like a gyroscope. You believe you’re going to live forever. You live in a perfect body—why wouldn’t you live forever? But at what age should we start walking?
Broderick-Burr’s answer: “Now.” She tells young people in her yoga classes that they may not think they are aging, but they are. “I tell them, ‘If you’re lucky, you’re going to get to be as old and fit as I am. You are aging.’” She says that women should begin strength training in their teens, twenties and thirties, when they lay down bone density. “Oh my God, we have so many young people who aren’t moving their bodies. They’re bent over a phone. Women are setting up osteoporosis young.”
The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases calls osteoporosis the “silent disease” because people may not notice symptoms until they break a bone. Broderick-Burr says, “It’s never too late to start walking, and it’s never too early.”
Looking for cool places to walk in Santa Cruz County? Check out wklys.co/takeahike. My Good Times online column “Take a Hike” describes 20 of my local favorites.
