I have been filling in the Beats Per Minute (BPM) field in the ID3 tags of my music in iTunes 4 and have an hours worth of good 109 BPM tunes in sequence on my iPod which makes for a nice soundtrack for a vigorous walk over lunch. To clarify, I had external motivation for this.
In December, 2001, the U. S. Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher issued “The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity.” In this report, Dr. Satcher joined former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop by highlighting the health risks and costs of overweight and obesity and issued a call to Americans to take action. Dr. Koop founded Shape Up America! in 1994 because of his concern about the increasing prevalence of obesity in America. The mission of Shape Up America! is to provide you with solid (scientific) information on weight management. Over the years, the Surgeon General has warned Americans about such things as the hazards of cigarette smoking or a high cholesterol level in your blood. In 1996, the Surgeon General issued an important report on physical activity and warned us that regardless of our age, we are just not active enough.
In short, there are now some studies suggesting that walking 10,000 steps a day is the right ball park to be in.
If I walk in time with my music at 109 BPM for one hour every day, I only get 6,540 steps in. My job is pretty sedentary, so I get little exercise beyond my daily walks. So, if I want to get my 10,000 steps, I have two options:
- Either, I extend my walks to 1 hour and 32 minutes,
- Or, I speed up my walks to 167 beats per minute.
I don’t know about you, but I consider 167 BPM to be jogging.