Women’s Running USA – September 2019

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12 WOMEN’S RUNNING SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019

WWARMARM UP UP THE LATESTTHE LATEST

The New Science

on Steps

O

ver the past decade, the boom of

pedometers and other wearable

fitness trackers has given life to

a new “gold standard” of fitness:

For overall better health, aim for a daily total

of 10,000 steps, which winds up being about

five miles of walking for most people. Just

like drinking eight glasses of water a day or

breakfast being the most important meal of

the day, this axiom was accepted without much

thought to where it came from.

Well, according to I-Min Lee, a professor

of epidemiology at the Harvard University

T. H. Chan School of Public Health, it likely

derives from the trade name of a pedometer

sold in 1965 by Yamasa Clock and Instru-

ment Company in Japan called Manpo-kei,

which translates to “10,000 steps meter” in

Japanese. That’s right, the number that’s

been so commonly accepted it’s been built

into the watches we wear and the apps we

download stemmed from nothing more than

a marketing decision more than 50 years ago.

Thankfully, in a new study published in the

Journal of the American Medical Association,

Lee and colleagues finally put some scientific

data behind that long-accepted stat—and

found a much more nuanced picture of how

much hoofing is really helping your health.

After observing the step totals and mortality

rates of more than 16,000 elderly American

women, researchers found that at 4,400 steps

per day, these women had significantly lower

mortality rates compared to the least active

women. If they did more, their mortality rates

continued to drop, until they reached about

7,500 steps, at which point the rates leveled out.

That’s not to say there’s anything negative

about a 10,000-step goal. If you can hit it, more

power to you! But ultimately, according to

science, increasing daily physical activity

by as little as 2,000 steps—less than a mile

of walking—was associated with positive

health outcomes.

A new study published in the

Journal of Sports Sciences

compared the effectiveness of

self-talk using first-person or

second-person pronouns (e.g.,

telling yourself “I can do this!”

vs. “You can do this!”). The re-

sults were pretty impressive:

13 of the 16 subjects did better

during a 10K cycling time trial

while using second-person rath-

er than first-person pronouns.

This finding builds on previous

research that has suggested that

second-person self-talk boosts

public speaking performance and

reduces the associated stress,

possibly because it enhances

“self-distancing.” Stepping out-

side your immediate experiences

and emotions, and viewing them

instead from the detached per-

spective of a supportive onlooker,

allows you to take the fear of fail-

ure less personally and to make

better decisions.

SCIENCE,

SAYS:

Speaking

in the

second

person

could

boost

your

results