The Importance of Daily Movement

By Ben Doskocil
SMALL TOWN TURNAROUND
As children and adolescents, we moved around our homes

nearly constantly, often driving our parents crazy. I can picture

my mother telling me “Benjamin! Can you sit still for one

second?!” And frankly as children, it is important to learn how

to sit peacefully at times, and learn how to successfully

complete more calm and stationary activities. However, as we

transition into adulthood, and especially middle-age, we can

unintentionally embrace an overly sedentary lifestyle. Our daily

routine can look something like this: Wake-Up, Get-Dressed,

Eat Breakfast, Drive 45 Minutes to Work, Sit for 8 Hours at a

Computer with a 30 Minute Lunch, Drive 45 Minutes Home, Eat

Dinner, Sit for Another 2 Hours Watching Television, Read in

Bed, Go to Sleep. And please, be easy on yourself if this

routine looks familiar. This sounds like the routine of a hardworking American! However, making movement a priority

throughout your day will have incredible health benefits.

Consciously committing to returning to some of our more

frequent child-like daily movements is a great start. The

American Heart Association recommends that each of us walk

at least 10,000 steps a day. And several recent scientific

studies have confirmed a clear correlation between more steps

per day, and a reduced risk of not only heart disease, but also

many other forms of illness. So do your best to get up and

move! Additionally, more steps translate to more calories

burned, so increasing your daily movement will also likely make

you look and feel better.

Try Using a Fitbit or Some Other Form of Step Counter

Keeping track of how many steps we walk in a day is a great

first step towards increasing our daily movement. Fitbits can

be expensive, but more simple versions of the these type of

devices now cost under 100 dollars. Also, many of our cell

phones track the number of steps we take each day, so take a

look in your applications and see if you can find your daily

movement data. Once you find a method to track your daily

step total, try committing to an extra 1,000 steps per day

during the following week. As you find creative ways to

increase your movement, try to increase your step total to

10,000 per day. Recent studies indicate that increases of 500

to 1000 steps per day can have a significant and positive effect

on our health.

Set Hourly Reminders

Many of us have jobs that require sitting at a computer, or

otherwise staying in one place for most of the day. Some of

our community’s most important jobs require high levels of

focus, and the ability to stay on task for long periods of time.

However, taking hourly 3-5 minute breaks, most often will not

negatively impact our work performance. Consider setting

hourly reminders on a computer, phone, or watch. A simple

singular beep or buzz can be the prompt we all need to

increase our daily step totals. Like any challenge, discipline is

critical in our commitment to daily movement. If we commit to

movement on the hour, every hour, we will need to prevent

our 3-5 minute walks from becoming 10-15 minute water

cooler conversations. That will simply require us to kindly

explain to our colleagues that we are “on a brief walk” and

unfortunately need to return to our work station. Counting and

tracking our daily step total can be fun! It is also highly

motivating to observe our accomplishments, and view the

numbers increase from week to week.

Positive Energy Always.

At Small Town Turnaround, we are providing this weekly

column in an attempt to spread positive energy to our local

community. We plan to continue to share recommendations on

financial literacy, health and wellness, and other areas where

we believe positive change is in reach.