One Million Step Challenge
How would you like to walk one million steps?
Yes, of course! The goal is to walk one million steps on your own schedule, while still challenging yourself to move more than usual. One million steps may sound like quite a number, but when we divide the steps into daily, weekly and monthly goals, the challenge starts to sound quite walkable.
We humans walk an average of about 3,000 to 8,000 steps a day. Nowadays, that is. However, this is considerably less than we have walked throughout our history. This decrease in physical activity can be seen in many ways in our state of physical and mental health.
Luckily it is quite easy to improve and start collecting more steps – we just need to get going!
Setting goals
It is good to choose goals relative to your current daily steps. You can track your steps for a week to get a realistic picture of your current walking activity. Once you know your normal daily and weekly step count, you can choose a suitable million step goal schedule for yourself from the options below.
Choose a goal so that the daily number of steps increases by at least one thousand steps. One thousand steps equals about 700 meters of walking. You can also take a steeper challenge and increase your daily walking by 2,000-3,000 steps (1.4-2.1 km) or even more. If you are not used to moving a lot, start lighter and add more steps as the challenge progresses and your fitness increases. A reckless start may stop your momentum before it has started.
You can also meet the challenge by doing a few longer walks every week, which will help you meet your weekly goals in addition to your normal daily walking activity.
Tracking
You can print for yourself a One Million Steps Challenge diary where you can enter daily and weekly step counts. This way you can follow your progress during the challenge. You can also monitor the number of steps using, for example, an activity bracelet or smartphone pedometer applications.
If you wish, you can also monitor other various health indicators during the challenge, such as weight, waist circumference, blood values and energy levels. At best, increased activity can be reflected in your well-being in many ways.
Walking with a group!
The million step challenge can also be completed with a group, for example with friends or a work group.
You can each collect your own steps or organize walks together. You can also do a challenge together, where one million steps are collected together. You can find the Million Steps Group Challenge for small groups here.
The One Million Step Challenge started in Finland in 2019 as a yearly walking campaign by Meijän polku (Our Path). The original ’Miljoonan askeleen haaste’ is part of the ’Vuosikello’ that is designed to increase the movement and well-being of people through various challenges. By taking on challenges, one can maintain and improve fitness and perceived quality of life all year round. The challenges are divided into entities according to the seasons.