Watch your step: Are you doing 10,000?

Keep-fit trends come and go, but serious walking is no longer seen as the preserve of ruddy-faced ramblers in geeky cagoules and sturdy brown leather ankle boots.

Foot power is enjoying a renaissance, thanks to addictive gizmos such as pedometers, Fitbits, which are worn round the wrist like a watch, and phones which track our daily steps.

Indeed you can barely walk down the street without someone stomping past you checking their Fitbit.

However, measuring steps isn’t a new idea, in fact it can be traced back to the Romans.

Leonardo da Vinci experimented with pedometers, and Thomas Jefferson is said to have introduced them to America.

Then, 40 years ago, the ‘10,000 steps a day’ programme was developed in Japan - and these days it’s a regime which has become entrenched in our collective psyche.

Walking 10,000 steps a day is the equivalent of about five miles and burns off in the region of 500 calories.

It is thought to help reduce body fat, lower body mass, tone legs and slim the waist and help to protect against 20 lifestyle-related illnesses, including heart disease, some cancers, osteoporosis and mental illness. Making the time to walk is also a great stress reliever.

Until I lost mine (whilst out walking, ironically), I was hooked on my Fitbit.

Of the various obsessions in my life - shoes, Sicilian wine, Tayto Cheese and Onion - I can safely say that the dependency I developed for my Fitbit was the first that has been beneficial.

Constantly by my side, well on my wrist, I became obsessed with checking my stepping progress, eager to beat the previous day’s count.

I became evangelical, preaching to anyone who would listen, about its benefits. And, I’m not the only one.

Nicola Bothwell, a 47-year-old marketing practitioner from Belfast, is equally devoted to taking steps to ensure she’s hitting her daily target.

‘‘I absolutely love wearing my Fitbit Blaze and since I got it at the end of 2017, the only time it’s off my arm is if it’s charging or if I’ve hit that day’s step target and I’m out that evening.

‘‘My Fitbit was a present from my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas. He’s a former world champion boxer so they are both obsessed with health and fitness and they bought me the Fitbit to encourage me to put down the biscuits, get off the sofa and take some extra steps every day.

‘‘They started a family Fitbit challenge group which my husband and I joined with them but it got a little competitive with us racing each other to hit the target every day and we don’t have their LA sunshine to go running in so I was soon lagging behind.’’

Nicola says wearing a step counter definitely encourages her to walk more.

‘‘Before I started wearing my Fitbit I wasn’t focused on reaching 10,000 steps every day.

‘‘I would go to the gym roughly five times a week but since starting to wear it I get a real sense of joy when I get my 10,000 step notification.

‘‘I’ve definitely made more of an effort in the past year to get out and enjoy the coastline and countryside and varying where I go walking and running.

‘I’m definitely fitter. I was diagnosed with running induced asthma a few years ago and I’d say hitting my 10,000 step goal every day has certainly helped lessen the symptoms I’d experienced from this previously.

‘‘And I can take on the hill at Stormont Estate with more gusto than I would have before I started wearing it.’’

Nicola says that over the course of a week she’ll notch up around 80,000 steps.

‘‘I work from home so it’s easy to just sit at my desk and move very little in the course of a day so I have to make a conscious effort to go for a walk or get out to the gym every day.

‘‘But if I get to the end of the day and haven’t had the welcome 10,000 step notification it’s usually because I’ve done another form of exercise that day not because I’ve been lazy so I don’t beat myself up about it.’’