A pedometer seemed like a nice thing to give to the class of 2015 when they first arrived on campus. It was small, easy to use and light-hearted, with a touch of seriousness. But once I began using it, I found that I learned quite a bit about myself.
First of all, walking the recommended 10,000 steps is a pretty steep expectation. (The goal of taking 10,000 steps in a day is a rough equivalent to the Surgeon General's recommendation to accumulate 30 minutes of activity most days of the week.) I certainly was able to reach—and exceed—that goal on a number of occasions, but more often than not I’d end up in the 6,000-7,500 range. During Fall Orientation, I racked up a whopping 11,458 steps, but I never got above 8,369 for the rest of September. During a departmental retreat in November, I only logged 2029 steps, the least amount of walking I experienced for all of Fall semester—but hopefully my participation in planning for the future of the Department of Computer Science can be calculated by other measures.
On vacation, however, my steps betray my eagerness to explore the treasures of Greece and Turkey. On the day that my wife and I visited the Acropolis, I walked 15,142 steps, and I walked 13,852 on the fascinating island of Rhodes.
Interestingly, the pedometer couldn’t account for other kinds of exercise, like playing tennis. It couldn’t register my heart rate, or my lunges, the quickness of my footwork, or my ace serves (I wish!). It did, however, tell me that I took about as many “steps” in 90 minutes of mixed doubles tennis as I did on an average day on campus. This in turn suggests that, on an ordinary day as I go about my business, my level of activity may well exceed the recommended 30 minutes even if I’m not routinely reaching the 10,000-step level. And perhaps more important, wearing the pedometer and charting my steps gave me insight into the potential health benefits that can accrue from walking, and why I shouldn’t side step this important form of exercise.
