The 4 Second Rule That's Driving Me Insane - A Walk Your AS Off Update
Walk your AS off started 5 weeks ago! Can you believe it? Time has flew by. This means we are now half way through the awareness campaign. I hope your all on target to meet your own personal goals.
This week I want to have a bit of a moan if you’ll indulge me. I want to moan about my pedometer. At present I have a Omron Walking Style One 2.1 Pedometer.
It has a lot of positives; it’s small and thin, it’s comfortable to wear, and it keeps 7 days worth of step totals in it’s memory. But there is one thing that is frustrating me, and that is the 4 second delay. As a way to make it ‘accurate’, the pedometer does not record the first 4 seconds of movement, ensuring that it is not recording ‘non-steps’ by accident. Which seems sensible. But I have since found out that I make a lot of trips that are less than 4 seconds in length. Which means they are not being recorded. Buggar!
Omron Walking Style One 2.1 Pedometer – Image credit: Amazon.co.uk
Take last weekend for instance. I was up nice and early with my son, doing the normal (1 year old) morning routine. This largely involves eating, filling nappies and climbing all over daddy – until one of us gets hurt that is (which is normally me). After 2 hours I checked my pedometer, which had recorded a monstrous 47 steps! “Err… that can’t be right” I said to my bemused toddler. For a start, I had been up and down the stairs at least 3 times. That’s 6 flights of 12 steps (3 up & 3 down), and my maths tells me is much more than 47 steps with just my trips up and down the stairs.
So the scientist in me decided I should do a little experiment. I walked up the stairs using my phone as a stopwatch. I recorded 4.2 seconds, and one whole step on my pedometer. The same was true of other ‘routine’ journeys I make around the house. How annoying!!
I have now started to estimate how many additional steps I take in the mornings and at night. But with me being an honest chap, I fear I may be underestimating, airing on the side of caution.
Has anyone else had pedometer woes? What sort do you have? Because I might buy one for the next 5 weeks of Walk your AS off.