How to get steps without walking outside

Twelve ways to get steps without a walk

Each of these is real stepping, so it counts on a phone in your pocket or a watch on your wrist.

• Climb the stairs at home, ten round trips at a time.
• March in place during a TV episode; an hour of television is a lot of steps.
• Pace while you are on the phone, every call.
• Dance to a few songs in the kitchen.
• Do the housework at a brisk pace: vacuuming, tidying and carrying laundry up and down.
• Walk laps of the house or the garden after each meal.
• Use a walking pad or treadmill under a standing desk.
• Play with children or a dog, which is mostly running about.
• Take the long way round inside: the farthest bathroom, the far printer, the stairs instead of the lift.
• Walk laps of a shopping centre or a big supermarket when the weather is bad.
• Follow an indoor walking workout video, many of which cover a mile in fifteen minutes.
• Stand and step side to side while you cook or wash up.

What does not count

Activities without a stepping motion add few or no steps, however hard they are: cycling, swimming, rowing and most weight training. They are good exercise, and a watch may record them as workouts, but they will not move a step count much.

Some people try to add steps by shaking the phone or typing them into the Health app. In a challenge with friends or colleagues that is cheating, and in Stepr it does not work anyway: typed and untrusted steps are excluded, and only the movement of a real device counts.

Make sure the steps are recorded

A step only counts if a device records it. Keep the phone in a pocket rather than on the table, or wear a watch that writes to Apple Health. Indoor stepping is recorded exactly like outdoor walking; the sensor counts movement, not location.

In Stepr, steps come from the iPhone's motion sensor and trusted Health sources such as Apple Watch, Garmin and Fitbit, so a watch keeps counting even when the phone is charging.

When the goal is big

A twenty-minute session of marching in place or stairs is roughly 2,000 steps, so a short block after each meal adds up fast. On a day when the goal is well above what you normally walk, split it into three or four indoor sessions rather than one long one, and start before lunch so the evening is not a rescue.

Questions people ask

Keep reading

• Step challenge tips: how to hit the goal every day
• A walking challenge app built around one rising daily goal
• How people cheat step challenges, and how to stop it
• Can you do a step challenge on Apple Watch?
• A virtual walking challenge to a real place, one day at a time
• All guides