Can't get to 10,000 steps a day? Try a brisk 10-minute walk instead

Ten thousand steps — it'll take you about 100 minutes of walking time, adds up to 8km or so, burns around 400 calories, and has long been the magic number to aim for.

But British health authorities have a different target: a regular 10-minute walk where you focus on keeping a brisk pace, rather than on the number of steps.

That brisk pace is key: to get the most health benefits out of walking, it should be undertaken a moderate intensity that increases heart rate. (If you can comfortably chat but are too puffed to sing, you're probably in that moderate-intensity zone.)

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A survey by Public Health England (PHE) indicated most people already walk for more than 10 minutes a day, but only half walk briskly for that amount of time.

To counter that dilemma, PHE has launched an app called Active 10 (available to Australians with both iPhones and Android phones) that measures a walker's time and intensity, rather than just their steps.

"The additional health benefits that can be achieved by walking at a brisk pace for periods of 10 minutes or more — as opposed to totting up a certain number of steps throughout the day — are undeniable," said Professor Muir Gray, a British doctor who worked on the development of the Active 10 app, in a statement.

According to the Active 10 site, those benefits include boosted energy and mood, eased back pain and blood pressure, and lowered risk of diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and some cancers.

“I’d advise anyone of any age and activity level to start to fit in at least one 10-minute brisk walk a day as a simple way to get more active," Gray added.

The 10,000 steps target originated in Japan in the 1960s and is a handy benchmark to set yourself. But if you struggle to get there, it's not necessarily a big deal: a 2016 study found you'll earn powerful health benefits with 3000 steps a day at a moderate pace — which works out to about three brisk 10-minute walks.

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