Walking This Many Steps Daily Has Huge Benefits For People Who Sit All Day

A new study says you can combat the harm that comes from a sedentary life.

It’s well known that a sedentary lifestyle is bad for your health. It increases your risk of heart disease, decreases your muscle strength and is linked to certain kinds of cancer.

Roughly 80% of jobs in the U.S. are sedentary, according to research published by the American Heart Association, meaning, this is a big problem for many people. You likely can’t just quit your sedentary job, and, even if you did, you’d probably just end up with another job where you sit in front of a computer all day.

So, what can you do to combat all of the bad that comes from a sedentary life? Walk more, according to a new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The study found that walking 9,000 to 10,500 steps combats many of the negatives that happen when you sit all day.

The study was made up of 72,174 people who wore movement trackers for seven days. Their sedentary time and movement time were both tracked. The average age of the participants was 61 with an average sedentary time of 10.6 hours each day.

Researchers found that those who walked between 9,000 and 10,500 steps daily had a 39% overall lower mortality risk and decreased the risk of cardiovascular disease by 21%. About 50% of these benefits came from walking between 4,000 and 4,500 steps each day.