Don’t underestimate the power of walking. Adding some extra walking minutes to your day can have a positive impact on your health and fitness goals, and your step count. Read on to find out how you can add more steps to your day.

Walking is a great first step that inactive people can take. Once you get up and moving with a simple activity such as walking, your body will naturally release feel good brain chemicals like serotonin and dopamine, giving you an emotional boost that may help to get you even more active.

How to increase your step count and add more walking to your day

100-1,000 steps: Change simple habits such as parking further from the store, getting off the bus one stop sooner, taking the stairs, avoiding escalators and moving walkways or a brisk 5-minute coffee-break walk to help you to accumulate this number of steps.

1,000-5,000 steps: To reach this number of steps you will need to start adding in walking on the spot while you are on the phone and a 20 minutes coffee-break walk. Make a conscious effort to get up from your desk a few times a day and walk for 5 minutes and get active around your home.

5,000-10,000 steps: 10,000 steps per day takes commitment. Aim to use stairs as exercise by taking them 5-6 times, walking 5km, taking a 40-minute dog walk, and taking two 20-minute coffee-break walks.