The common metric of 10,000 steps is a completely arbitrary figure, one that originates from a successful Japanese marketing campaign in the mid-1960s. Paluch, kinesiology, recently authored a meta-analysis of eight studies that concluded among older adults, taking 6,000 to 9,000 steps per day was associated with 40 to 50 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with taking 2,000 steps per day. “For those who are at 2,000 or 3,000 steps a day, doing a little bit more can mean a lot for their heart health. If you’re at 6,000 steps, getting to 7,000 and then to 8,000 also is beneficial, it is just a smaller, incremental improvement,” Paluch says. Read more here.