Exercise scientists established the benefits of physical activity decades ago and publish refinements every day. We’ve heard of the 10,000 step rule and that appears to be a manageable target and easy to remember.
However, is that target appropriate for you? A client?
To accommodate increased physical activity, several adjustments need to be made to in your schedule: creating time, rearranging the environment, and learning that additional physical activity requires increased response effort in all areas of one’s life.
Setting Step Goals
Say you want to increase your daily steps, but don’t know where to start. Setting appropriate goals relies on a process called shaping — setting successive goals that allow you systematically achieve an end goal. Jumping to 10,000 steps is likely not sustainable if you come from a period of a severe physical inactivity.
There is no harm in setting Fitbit goals or scrolling through the Digital Crown on your Apple Watch to update the activity rings. However, sometimes we need to be more precise and individualized.
To set physical activity step goals, follow these steps:
- Establish a Baseline
- Collect Baseline Data for 2 Weeks
- Look at the trend
- Take The Average
- Add 10%
- Write a Goal
- Reset The Goal
Establish A Baseline
A Baseline gives you an understanding of the volume of physical activity that you average daily. Enter our fantastic Fitbits and amazing Apple Watches. Wear these devices and record your daily steps on a spreadsheet or notepad.
Don’t have a fancy wrist-worn device? Your cell phone likely captures step counts so keep that thing in your pocket when you move about.
Collect Baseline Data for 2 Weeks
Why two weeks? Of course, you want to increase physical activity right away, but lengthening the baseline for 2 weeks allows you to see the natural variability in your daily and weekly schedules. Our daily schedules vary: 3 days in the office, 2 days on the road. As do our weeks: 4 reports due one week, none the next.
Lifestyle and work contingencies directly impact our physical activity and are easily detected through an extended baseline.
Plus, capturing a baseline for 10-14 days provides enough data so that missing a day or two is no big deal because you forgot to wear your device or the battery died.
(These things happen. I’ve seen them time again with my clients)
Look At The Trend
This is the beauty of starting with baseline data. You may not need to intervene at all! Or more importantly, in later analyses, you cannot determine the effectiveness of your intervention without a proper baseline.
Are you trending up, down, or staying the same? You may be trending up. If that’s the case, then take another week of baseline data. Eventually, your performance may level off or trend down.
When that’s the case, on to the next step…
Take the Average
With your 14 data points in hand, average the step counts. Simple math.
Most people that want to increase physical activity average between 2000-6000 steps per day. If the average is more, that’s ok too.
Set the Goal at +10% of Baseline
Increasing the goal +10% is a sustainable strategy that’s been successful with my clients. Research doesn’t provide an exact number to follow, but systematic increases range from 5%-20% of baseline.
For example,
- If Juan averaged 5,435 steps / day, then his goal would be 5,978 (5,435 × 1.1)
- If Tanya averaged 2,954 steps / day, then her goal would be 3,249 (3,249 × 1.1)
Also, I round to the nearest 500. Juan and Tanya’s goals would be set at 6,000 and 3,500, respectively.
Write the Appropriate Goal
You have goal! Great! How long does it last? Forever?
I covered how to write goals in a previous post, but in general, the goal needs to be written such that increased physical activity is consistent over long periods of time — achieved on most days, most weeks, and most months of the year.
Juan and Tanya need to meet these steps goals on most days for the next couple of weeks. Because physical activity is a general necessity, most days means that the goal should be met at least on 4/7 days each week. If this goal is too difficult to meet, then the goal was set too high, there are other contingencies at play, or you may need to further assess other environmental variables are impeding progress (e.g., sick, vacation, new baby).
Reset the Goals
Hit the first goal right away?!?! Awesome. Rinse and repeat.
Your first goal-setting phase was essentially your “new” baseline. Take the average during this phase and add 10%.
What comes next?
Eventually, you will reach a desired daily physical activity level, say 8,500 steps / day. Hitting goals at the micro-level is the first step. Now, we need to maintain these physical activity levels at the macro-level…
Enter Maintenance! Often reported as the most difficult part following behavioral change, you may need to consider different strategies to maintain your new-found levels of physical activity. That is, the reinforcers that got you moving in the first place may wane and no longer be effective.
Keep moving!
