Half the world walks with smart watches or an app on their phone and makes sure they walk at least the magical ten thousand steps every day.
But where did that come from?
On the eve of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, the company Yamasa advertised a healthy lifestyle and recommended ten thousand steps a day.
Although it is not a bad landmark, it is believed that the figure was taken for advertising purposes. Because em ten thousand is one of the basic numbers in the Far East, so it's easy to remember (pronounced the Commission), when written, that number resembles the movement of a man walking 万.
Ingenious meter
The company had great success with the counter manpo-kei, literally "ten thousand step meter", which arrived on the market in 1965.
It had to be worn on the hip because it had a sensitive but ingenious mechanism – when the hip moves during a step, a fine pendulum overcomes the spring and strikes a gear that turns the dial.
Today's gauges are more modern, of course, they rely on gyroscopes and sensors and "know" if you're moving because you're walking, running, or perhaps hitching a ride on a bike or bus.
How far should you walk?
Meanwhile, scientists have determined that chronic and cardiovascular diseases as well as premature deaths occur less if a person walks about seven thousand steps.
The greatest progress is achieved at the beginning - the one who does not move his ass from the couch, profits already when he starts with three or four thousand steps. For adults, the benefit decreases as soon as eight thousand steps are reached, and for young people from ten thousand at the latest.
Although the media and scientists sometimes write about the "myth of ten thousand steps", even walking that much can't hurt, on the contrary.
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