The short answer: start with an amount you can repeat, and build from there. The research backs a few things: any amount of activity counts, tracking your steps tends to increase them, and the main guidelines are 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week plus some muscle-strengthening. It doesn't back a particular week-by-week schedule or the "10% rule," and walking alone doesn't cover everything the guidelines recommend.
Where to start
No trial tells beginners what their first week should be, so the earlier page's suggestion of 3,000 to 5,000 steps, or 2,000 if that feels like too much, is a reasonable judgement rather than a finding. The useful part is the principle: choose something easy enough that you'll do it. How much benefit to expect at different step counts is covered in the 4,400 steps study and how many steps you need. If you have a heart condition, new chest pain, dizziness or other symptoms, check with a doctor before increasing your activity.
Building up
The earlier page recommended a "10% rule" and a six-week table taking you from 3,000 to 10,000 steps. The rule has been tested in running. In a 2008 randomised trial of 532 novice runners (Buist and colleagues, American Journal of Sports Medicine), a 13-week program built on the 10% rule produced injuries in 20.8% of runners compared with 20.3% on a standard 8-week program that increased by roughly 24% a week. That's no benefit from the 10% rule, though it's a running study and we haven't found an equivalent for walking. Walking is gentler, so there's no reason to fear a gradual build, but there's no proven formula either. Our suggestion is to add a few minutes or a few hundred steps when the last week felt easy, and hold steady when it didn't. The 30-day walking challenge is one structured option, and the table here has been removed.
Short walks count
The earlier page said three 10-minute walks give the same health benefits as one 30-minute walk. The 2020 World Health Organization guidelines (Bull and colleagues) dropped the earlier requirement that aerobic activity occur in bouts of at least 10 minutes, noting that cohort studies show activity of any bout duration is associated with better health outcomes. Cohort studies show association, not proof that the two are identical, so we'd say that short walks count and splitting is a perfectly good way to start. Short breaks have specific effects too; see walking and blood sugar.
Does tracking help?
Reasonably well. A 2007 systematic review in JAMA (Bravata and colleagues) found that pedometer users in eight randomised trials increased their activity by 2,491 steps a day more than controls (95% CI 1,098 to 3,885), and observational studies showed a 26.9% increase over baseline. The best predictor of a bigger increase was having a step goal. Pedometer users' BMI fell by 0.38 on average, and the authors noted that it is undetermined whether the changes last. So tracking is a useful tool, though "the single most effective motivation tool" and the idea that a 10-day streak keeps you going are overstatements; we haven't found trials on streaks. If you want an hourly chart, StepMax, our own free app, has one: Android, iPhone. A phone's built-in counter works too.
Keeping going
The habit-formation study most often cited (Lally and colleagues, 2010) found a median of 66 days for a behaviour to become automatic, ranging from 18 to 254, and that missing a single day did not materially affect the process. That supports the earlier page's advice not to treat a missed day as failure. The other tips on the page, such as walking with a partner or dog, attaching walks to things you already do, and the "just 10 minutes" trick, are common suggestions that we haven't seen tested against each other, so treat them as ideas to try rather than proven methods.
Shoes, clothes and form
Fit is the best-supported thing about shoes; see walking shoes, where we explain which of the common rules (replacing every 500 to 800 km, arch support, "a half size swelling") come from running or practice rather than walking research. Clothing is a matter of comfort. On form, there is less evidence for specific "correct" posture than guides imply, and our posture and form page covers what is and isn't supported. The earlier claim that carrying a phone in one hand creates "shoulder and hip imbalances over time" has no study behind it. When to walk is covered in morning vs evening walks, which found no time of day clearly better; we removed this page's circadian and caffeine claims for that reason.
Is walking enough?
It is a great place to start, but it isn't the whole picture the guidelines describe. The WHO recommends 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, or 75 to 150 of vigorous, and also recommends muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days a week; walking isn't counted as muscle-strengthening. Walking alone had no significant effect on bone density at several sites in a meta-analysis of postmenopausal women (see walking vs gym). The earlier page said walking "strengthens bones and muscles" and that it is "more than enough," which overstated it. For a beginner, building a regular walking habit first is sensible; adding strength work later is what the guidelines suggest. Walking for weight loss covers that question.
Sources
- Bull FC, Al-Ansari SS, Biddle S, et al. World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020;54:1451-1462. PMC
- Buist I, Bredeweg SW, van Mechelen W, Lemmink KA, Pepping GJ, Diercks RL. No effect of a graded training program on the number of running-related injuries in novice runners: a randomized controlled trial. American Journal of Sports Medicine. 2008;36(1):33-39. PubMed
- Bravata DM, Smith-Spangler C, Sundaram V, et al. Using pedometers to increase physical activity and improve health: a systematic review. JAMA. 2007;298(19):2296-2304. PubMed
- Lally P, van Jaarsveld CHM, Potts HWW, Wardle J. How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology. 2010;40(6):998-1009. wiley.com
Correction note: an earlier version of this page gave a six-week table taking beginners from 3,000 to 10,000 steps and called the 10% rule the safest way to build up; said tracking is the single most effective motivation tool; said morning sunlight resets your circadian rhythm and replaces caffeine; said carrying a phone in one hand causes shoulder and hip imbalances; repeated the shoe-replacement and arch-support rules; and said walking strengthens bones and muscles and is more than enough exercise for beginners. We could not support those, so they were removed or corrected; the 10% rule evidence comes from running. We checked the figures above against published abstracts and summaries on October 2, 2026. This article is for informational purposes and does not replace medical advice. This is general information, not medical advice.