Walking is incredibly important for all of our health. The general guideline for an average, healthy individual is that you should do at least 10,000 steps each and every day. This way, you get your recommended dose of exercise and reduce high blood pressure and the risk of heart disease. However, (and this is a VERY BIG ‘however’), if you’ve had a major health scare—like a heart attack—you should listen to your doctor’s orders when it comes to how many steps you should do.

So if your health professional tells you to walk just 1.5 miles a day while you’re still recovering, it’s best to listen. You shouldn’t feel pressured into pushing yourself drastically more than your body can handle at the moment. Even by someone you love. You have to ease back into exercise. Very slowly.

A redditor shared a fantastic story of coworkers banding together to help a friend. A colleague of theirs, Bob, had recently suffered a mild heart attack. His incredibly disagreeable wife pushed him to walk 10k steps a day, even though that was far beyond how much he was supposed to be moving. So in order to trick her, each employee would grab Bob’s pedometer when they walked by his desk to get to the number he needed to not be shouted at by the love of his life. Teamwork really does make the dream work.

Scroll down for the full story, Pandas. What did you think of the plan? How many steps are you doing every day, on average? Have you ever had to recover from a serious illness, health scare, or surgery? Share your thoughts in the comments.

After a major health crisis, you have to listen to your doctor: take it slow and easy while you recover, and don’t overexert yourself too quickly

Image credits: Janet A (not the actual photo)

Someone shared how everyone stepped in to help their coworker, Bob, who had a heart attack. His nagging wife pushed him to walk far more than he was capable of each day

Image credits: Yan Krukov (not the actual photo)

Image credit: ronearc

The r/MaliciousCompliance mods deleted the original story for an unknown reason, however, you can still read it in full using the Wayback Machine. Bored Panda reached out to the redditor who posted the story, u/ronearc, to hear more about what happened.

Walking is a good form of exercise because it is free, easily done, and we were literally born to do it. Human beings weren’t meant to sit in one place for such long periods of time throughout the day. In short, the average person should probably be walking more than they currently are. If you have a fitness app on your phone, one of those fancy digital wristwatches that track all of your data, or an old-fashioned pedometer, you can quickly calculate your average baseline.

Walking slightly longer and longer distances each day can also help you build up your fitness level, allowing you to (gently, slowly) move towards more strenuous forms of exercise.

Health and fitness isn’t a race. Everyone goes at their own pace. Exercise is a personal journey that works best when you actually enjoy what you do. Someone in your social circle might feel that you should play tennis, but if you loathe the game, it’s not for you.

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Hiking, swimming, cycling or something else entirely might be what brings you the most joy. You’re supposed to bring yourself out of your comfort zone, but not so much that you’d be dreading doing it all over again the next day. Aim for consistency and growth, not sporadic spurts of effort. You and your doctor will probably know what’s best for you.

The Cleveland Clinic points out that “everyone recovers at a different pace” after a heart attack. “This may be related to your activity level before your heart attack or the amount of damage to your heart muscle. It may take many months to develop the optimal exercise program.”

The Clinic recommends that you start things off very nice and slow. “Increase your walking pace over 3 minutes until the activity feels moderate (slightly increased breathing, but should still be able to talk with someone). If you feel too short of breath, slow down your walking pace,” they explain.

“Walk at a moderate pace for about 10 minutes the first time and each day try to add one or two minutes. By the end of a month, aim for walking 30 minutes most days of the week. Remember to cool down at the end of your exercise by gradually walking slower for the last 3 minutes of your exercise.”

However, if you notice symptoms like excessive shortness of breath, chest discomfort, palpitations that don’t go away, or an increase in fatigue, you have to stop exercising right away. Get in touch with your doctor immediately.

The actual number of steps adults take per day, on average, is shockingly low. It also varies a lot from country to country. For instance, one study, from 2017, found that people living in the US and Canada do fewer than 5k steps each day. In contrast, another study, from 2010, showed the Japanese do over 7k steps while the Swiss do a whopping 9.6k steps.

We just hope Bob’s doing okay.

The author of the story, Bob’s supervisor, shared some more context in the comments

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