Walking used to be fairly difficult to get wrong.
Put shoes on. Leave house. Walk.
Then came 10,000 steps. Hot Girl Walks. Silent Walking. Walking pads. Step streaks. Watches congratulating us for going to Tesco.
And now, in parts of the UK, you can even earn rewards for doing it.
We have, apparently, optimised walking.
The government-backed Better Health: Rewards pilot in Wolverhampton tested whether incentives could encourage people to move more. Around 35,000 adults signed up, with some able to earn financial rewards for completing personalised health challenges.
It worked - although not dramatically. Those offered financial rewards averaged around 256 extra steps a day and 1.9 additional minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity.
Not exactly an ultramarathon.
But also not nothing.
And similar schemes are appearing locally, rewarding people for walking, wheeling and cycling.
Apparently going for a walk now has a loyalty programme.
Do we really need 10,000 steps?
Probably not.
The 10,000-step target has become so ingrained that anything below it can feel like you've somehow failed at walking.
But research suggests the health benefits begin well below that number. A 2023 meta-analysis involving almost 227,000 people found that higher daily step counts were associated with progressively lower risks of death from any cause and cardiovascular disease. Each additional 1,000 steps a day was associated with a 15% lower risk of all-cause mortality (Banach et al., 2023).
That doesn't mean there's a magic lower number either - it's an association, not a prescription to stop walking once you've hit a particular target. The much more useful message is that more movement matters, even if you don't reach 10,000 steps.
The Current UK Guidance:
That's also reflected in the UK's updated physical activity guidance: every movement counts, with some of the biggest health gains happening when people go from doing very little to doing something.
The walk to the shops counts.
Fifteen minutes at lunch counts.
Getting off the bus early counts.
Your body isn't waiting for your watch to hit 10,000 before acknowledging your efforts.
Which makes our determination to rebrand walking slightly funny.
We've had Hot Girl Walks. Now there's Silent Walking - walking without music, podcasts or your phone.
Your grandparents may know it as going somewhere.
Points mean Prizes
Perhaps that's the strange thing about modern wellness. We take something incredibly simple, add targets, scores, equipment and a catchy name, and suddenly it becomes another thing we're supposed to be good at.
If your step count motivates you, great. If a streak gets you outside, keep it. And if someone wants to give you a voucher for walking, absolutely take the voucher.
But a 20-minute walk that doesn't close your rings hasn't failed.
You don't need a weighted vest.
You don't need exactly 10,000 steps.
You don't even need to call it a Hot Girl Walk.
Put shoes on. Leave house. Walk.
Although if someone wants to give us Tesco points for it, we're not going to argue.
References
Banach, M., Lewek, J., Surma, S., Penson, P.E., Sahebkar, A., Martin, S.S. et al. (2023) ‘The association between daily step count and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: a meta-analysis’, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 30(18), pp. 1975–1985. doi: 10.1093/eurjpc/zwad229.
Department of Health and Social Care (2026) New UK CMO activity guidelines show every movement counts. UK Government, 10 July 2026.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (2025) Better Health: Rewards pilot – summary of results. UK Government.
Kent County Council (2026) KCC launches WeRoam – the free app that rewards you for walking, wheeling and cycling. 10 July 2026.
