According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), healthy seniors should walk 7,000 – 10,000 steps per day. That's an average of three to three and a half miles throughout the course of a day.
Older adults who walk three to four miles a day — 6,000 to 9,000 steps — were found to be 40 to 50 percent less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke than those who walk a mile (2,000 steps) a day, according to research published in the journal Circulation.
Generally, older adults in good physical shape walk somewhere between 2,000 and 9,000 steps daily. This translates into walking distances of 1 and 4-1/2 miles respectively.
Many experts agree that the recommended steps per day for seniors is 7,000-10,000. People who live with a disability or chronic illness can still benefit from an active lifestyle, and depending on individual abilities may strive for 5,500 steps per day.
Walking is a form of low impact, moderate intensity exercise that has a range of health benefits and few risks. As a result, the CDC recommend that most adults aim for 10,000 steps per day . For most people, this is the equivalent of about 8 kilometers, or 5 miles.
Brisk walkers had a 35 percent lower risk of dying, a 25 percent lower chance of developing heart disease or cancer and a 30 percent lower risk of developing dementia, compared with those whose average pace was slower.
For example, regular brisk walking can help you: Maintain a healthy weight and lose body fat. Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer and type 2 diabetes. Improve cardiovascular fitness.
Research points to the health indicators of various walking speeds in adults 65 and older: Speeds ≤ 1.3 miles per hour suggest poor health and functional status. A speed of 1.8 mph is the median walking pace for this population. Speeds ≥ 2.2 mph suggest healthier aging.
Adults aged 65 and older need: At least 150 minutes a week (for example, 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week) of moderate-intensity activity such as brisk walking. Or they need 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity activity such as hiking, jogging, or running.
What does 10,000 steps look like? Ten thousand steps equates to about eight kilometres, or an hour and 40 minutes walking, depending on your stride length and walking speed. But that doesn't mean you have to do it all in one walk.
10 common reasons seniors shuffle when they walk:
Weak hips and leg muscles. Arthritis pain in joints. Loss of flexibility in feet making it hard to flex them normally. Decreased ability to maintain balance.
Sleep and Aging
Older adults need about the same amount of sleep as all adults—7 to 9 hours each night.
An average person has a stride length of approximately 2.1 to 2.5 feet. That means that it takes over 2,000 steps to walk one mile and 10,000 steps would be almost 5 miles.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines an “older adult” as someone who is at least 60 years old. Many states may also have different definitions of “elderly” when determining what resources are available in cases of elder abuse, although most states commonly use 65 years of age as the cut-off.
Experts have said that walking could be the best exercise for seniors; it's an effective way to reduce the risk for chronic conditions and improve your overall health. Some of the benefits of walking for seniors include: Improves heart health. For seniors, walking offers numerous heart health benefits.
What's happening. With age, bones tend to shrink in size and density, weakening them and making them more susceptible to fracture. You might even become a bit shorter. Muscles generally lose strength, endurance and flexibility — factors that can affect your coordination, stability and balance.
During this test, you walk at your normal pace for six minutes. This test can be used to monitor your response to treatments for heart, lung and other health problems. This test is commonly used for people with pulmonary hypertension, interstitial lung disease, pre-lung transplant evaluation or COPD.
How Much Should You Walk Daily According to BMI? If an individual has a higher BMI and is looking to add more activity to their routine, 30 minutes of walking each day, or about 3,000 to 5,000 steps (1.5 to 3 miles), is recommended.
If the average stride length is 80 centimetres, it takes 1250 steps to walk one kilometre.
Slower walking speed in the elderly may be explained by loss of muscle strength and mass. Summary: Research has found that elderly people walk at a slower speed and tire more quickly because of loss of strength and mass in leg muscles.
12 minutes per kilometre (5 kilometres per hour)
A slower walk as you age has always been a warning sign of increasing frailty that could lead to falls and other disabilities, experts say. Emerging research in small groups of elderly subjects has also found that a slower gait from year to year may be an early sign of cognitive decline.
A simple 5km walk is a surprisingly effective and versatile way to check most (if not all) of your fitness boxes, depending on how creative you want to get with it!! … It is long enough to reap plenty of benefits (see below) and gives you enough time to throw in some variety (interval training, anyone?)
Walking for 30 minutes at a brisk pace covers a distance of 2.0 to 2.5 km and burns about 125 calories (520 kiloJoules). This amount may not seem like much, but if you walked five days a week within one year you would burn over 32,000 calories which would burn off more than 5 kg of fat.
Burn Off The Calories
Walking for 45 minutes per day at a moderate pace means you'll be walking for 4 kilometres. And 4 kilometres every day can burn off a substantial amount of calories – up to 250 per day. Keep that up for a week and you can burn off 1750 calories.