How do you get those extra steps in?

[zapleahy]

I live about four miles from my workplace and although I haven't yet walked all four miles to or from work, there are a few games I play during the week to increase my stepcount.

Some days I'll take the hillier, windier, unnecessarily long route to BART (San Francisco's heavy-rail rapid transit system). Almost always, I forgo the escalator for the stairs. Today, that act alone added 5 flights of stairs and over 250 steps to my morning journey.

My other favorite "cheat" is high stepping in place. Sure, I may look a little odd bouncing up and down while typing at my makeshift standing desk, but it feels good to keep the blood flowing and the legs moving! 

What do you do to get your extra steps in?

[TandemWalker]

@Caria - I like the commercial break tip.  You got my vote on that one!

[TandemWalker]

@Colin: 

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@Colinm39 wrote:

If you jog fast enough you will find you have gone 1.2 miles miles without moving

:smileyhappy :

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I know! Isn't that something!  Fitbit is truly, but truly INCREDIBLE!

[Larry]

My wife does the "walk in place" while watching TV.  When I still need steps for my daily goal (20,000), I will 'power walk' around the house.  Very quick-stepping around the house, not in place...I have to be going somewhere, even if it is in 'circles' around the periphery of the house.

[CarolS]

I jog in place while brushing my teeth.  I think it's about 2 minutes.  I also might jog in place during the comercials.  Along with walking my large dog, walking to the gym, and walking to the grocery store for just an item or two, I manage to get in my goal steps and then some. 

[Colinm39]

I go shopping 3 or 4 times a week with my 45 year old daughter who through illness is a habitual heavy smoker and she needs her smoke breaks. So I get 5 minutes of stepping everytime. If it is in a closed mall she has to plan her shopping around the smoking area exits. All an unfortunate bonus for me.

[tallson]

I think it is interesting how many folks park their cars in such a way as to increase their steps.  I would caution everyone to the danger of other cars in the parking lots.  What you are doing is a good thing for your bodies but plan your walks to avoid accidents. Use the sidewalks and wear light colored clothing at night, when ever possible and remember might makes right...like it or not. 

[PastaLuver14]

I used to do simple little things like park far away from a store to get those extra steps in. Now a days I am doing 40,000+ steps in a day. I actually don't really rely on my car to get places. I mostly walk or run

[tdfischer]

GREAT replies from everyone on this thread - nice to add some new ones to my arsenal!  I personally like: parking further away, walking in place at a standing desk, and getting up for a 5 minute "wander" every hour.  Interesting enough I asked someone on the first floor (I work on the third floor) if I could put my personal coffee maker in their break room - it forces me to go up/down 3 flights of stairs and for a little walk at least 3x every morning 😄

[Ukase]

During the week, I average about 6500 steps - just at work. The weekends however, are a different story. I try to get to the flea market and walk around, see what's priced to sell that I can use and that kind of thing. Nothing brisk, just a leisurely stroll. It all adds up.

Later in the day, to get the other half of my 10k steps, I'll go visit a giant Wal-mart or the shopping mall and just see what's on sale, Christmas shopping, that kind of thing. Or, if my muscle's feel recuperated from Thursday's workout, I'll hit the gym and do a quick 30 minute weightlifting routine followed by some time on the treadmill. I prefer the elliptical, but the FitBit doesn't seem to log  those steps very well. Sadly, the Cybex machines don't give a total count of calories burned.

[joshl]

1. I get to work about 5 minutes earlier than I need to and will walk around the auditorium.
2. I will purposely walk across the building at least once a day to encourage co-workers.
3. I will walk around the room I work in many extra times throughout the day.
4. When shopping, I walk up each aisle.

[Caro]

Leslie Sansone - brilliant walk at home workouts, they are brisk paced and work lots of muscles - great for dark wet wintery nights when you didn't reach your goals - I love it, and I've lost 7lbs in three weeks through upping my steps (doing her dvd about 3 x per week) and staying in my calorie goals using My fitness pal.  I find Leslie through Youtube - loads of workouts to choose from.

[kflannery]

thanks, i have heard this...i am going to give it a try, get tired of the treadmill on rainy nights after work....

[TandemWalker]

A 30-min workout on my Wavemaster boxing bag works well for me on wet days or when it's bitter cold out there, like minus 20C right now in my neck of the woods. I used to set my tracker aside for this activity and then do a manual log of it; but then I realized that if I kept my tracker on, the steps pile up fast.  So not only do I get more credit, but I'm also working out my arms, shoulders and other leg muscles (sidekick drill.)

I use a set program which starts with a speed bag drill, followed by a jab drill, then an uppercut drill and then a sidekick drill; segment is for two minutes, with a one minute rest in between.  Then I repeat the four drills, but for three minutes each this time, still with a one minute rest between each.  During the rest, you just don't sit and do nothing - even though you have to bring your heart rate down somewhat, you still have to move, so I do a slow jog in place.

When I really want to intensify my workout, I tape a picture of someone who annoys me, like a bad senator, and go at it! (I'm kdding )

Any way, if you have the room, that free standing boxing bag is a very good workout.

[RomaS]

Allison:  I know this sounds a bit crazy and obsessive but why does the Fitibit Force not log all of the "steps" on the elliptical machine?  Even though I get a better cardio workout on my elliptical machine at home, because I get  more steps walking around the house and up and down the stairs, I've elected not to use the elliptical or any other gym equipment because of the inaccurate step count.  Do you think this can be one of the upgrades that we can have on the Fitbit Force sometime in the near future?  For example, it kills me that I get barely  Fitbit credit when I do pilates on the reformers (not about to give it up) but still. would be nice to see a progress bar of some sort.

[zapleahy]

Hi @RomaS,  Great to see you here! This doesn't sound crazy and obsessive to me. There are many activities you can engage in to meet your fitness goals. The elliptical and pilates reformer are two popular low impact workouts that you should absolutely continue to mix into the routine. I've noticed a few discussions in the community around the elliptical stepcount. You can drop in on those discussions here and here or start your own. I would suggest submitting your Force upgrade suggestion as a feature request. This will make it more visible to our product and development teams and allow other members of the community to chime in and vote for your idea. Stop by our Product Features board to post a new topic. Thanks!

[Doug]

@RomaS:  In a more direct response to your question about why time spent on an eliptical does not register as steps, the technical reason is that its algorithms do not (currently?) recognize the pattern of motion as "steps".  Unlike old mechanical pedometers, all Fitbit models use "accelerometers" which detect motion in all three axis.  In essence, the sensors just say what direction it is moving and how fast.

It is up to programming in the firmware to analyze those motions and decide if it appears to be from "steps" or not.  The trick is to eliminate false positives while capturing as much true "stepping" as possible.  It is an interesting technical challenge, particularly when the movement is on a wrist mounted device.

The good news is the devices have upgradeable firmware, which should mean they can tune the detection algorithms.  The catch will be doing so reliably for the wrist motions on an eliptical while not introducing false positives from other hand and arm movements.  I remember reading when the Flex was released that the engineeers would send people out pushing strollers and performing various tasks while they tuned the Flex algorithms.

My speculation is they either did not test it with various eliptical models, or they had trouble counting it while excluding similar movements when not on the eliptical.  Or they tested only with models similar to the one at the gym which somebody did report as getting credited.

As previously pointed out, you could try moving it to another location such as your shoe laces.  But if you do, also pay attention to how many calories it gives.  You may get more reasonable "steps" while having calorie counts which are totally off the mark.

[saxplayermom]

instead of carrying the laundry baskets (each bedroom has one) I place it on the kitchen table and carry the items back one at a time.    My house is L shaped, kitchen at top of L master bedroom at bottom of L.   For instance my group of socks, then my underwear, bra's etc.   Since I have 3 rooms I do get a lot of steps in.

[Digitalreflect]

well , what I did today while waiting for my wife and daughter to get out of the dr appointment, Instead of waiting in the lobby I ran the stairs in the office building (4 floors) then really started getting looks as I walked laps around a small  court yard till they got out . That being about 2 hours of non stop walking lol.

[V1CK1]

Lots of fabulous ideas here and many I practice myself. Now whenever i see anyone walking around aimlessly I assume they have a fitbit and are upping their step count 😉

[eileenjez]

If I don't have enough after an hour on the treadmill we'll go to the mall and do a lap there. If I still need more we'll go to someplace like Sam's club and walk up and down all the aisles. That usually does it. If I feel like getting a higher count I'll go downstairs to the basement and do at least a half hour more on the treadmill.