Is The 10,000 Steps A Day Target Myth Or Maxim?

Is the 10,000 steps a day target myth or maxim?

- Arissa Ha

Long touted as the sweet spot for health, 10,000 steps a day is a widely promoted fitness goal. It's even the requisite for many health initiatives, including Singapore's very own National Steps Challenge (NSC), first introduced by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) in 2015 to encourage citizens to be more physically active.

To put things in perspective, 10,000 steps translate into roughly 8km, and with the typical walking speed of the average adult pegged at about 5km per hour, it'll take approximately one hour and 40 minutes to hit that target. While it's certainly doable (HPB's records show that about a third of the 350,000 participants of NSC2 managed to clock 10,000 steps a day at least five times a week), it might not be the most practical goal for many in Singapore-a country that is the fourth-most overworked city in the world, according to the latest study conducted by American security solutions company Kisi.