Walking

From traveling to walking

Long before being presented as an exercise, walking was a way to reach a place, to work and to explore one's environment. The walk adds another intention: to take the time for the journey itself. This coexistence remains visible today between the steps necessary for travel and the outings chosen for pleasure or to maintain one's fitness.

Paths to defend

Organized hiking reminds us that walking also depends on access to places. In Great Britain, the history of the Ramblers associates collective outings with the defense of paths and access to the countryside. Their movement was built around groups of walkers, demands and work on routes, making walking a social practice as much as a physical activity.

Why do we talk about 10,000 steps?

The figure owes part of its popularity to Japanese pedometers. Yamasa says he began developing a device at the request of promoters of a movement encouraging 10,000 steps daily, before marketing his first model to the general public in 1965. The benchmark therefore existed as a mobilization objective before the major current studies on steps and health.

This round number then emerged as an easy goal to remember. However, it does not correspond to a biological boundary separating useless walking from beneficial walking. Research on daily steps shows favorable associations with lower volumes, and a gradual evolution of benefits rather than a sudden shift at the ten thousandth step.

The step becomes visible on a screen

Phones and watches have made this daily tracking much more accessible. An ordinary activity becomes a counter, an average and sometimes a series of days to preserve. This measure can encourage regularity, but it benefits from remaining a tool: a useful journey, a pleasant walk and a brisk walk are worth more than simply filling up a gauge.