Welcome to the Get Fit Guys' quick and dirty tips to get moving and shape up.

My name is Brock Armstrong and I'm the Get Fit Guy.

I know. There is an older Get Fit Guy episode and article on whether you should really self-quantify,

which mentioned the value of sometimes simply unplugging and ignoring

the dizzying and often enjoyment minimizing host of self-quantifications, calorie-counting and

step-counting wristbands, wearables, technologies, and other such devices out there. At the same time, I've also been known to wear an Apple Watch,

and I have used and written about a device called a Woop

that tracks a fair share of self-quantification variables,

including sleep, heart rate, distance, speed, heart rate variability, and more.

One of the easiest numbers I've been tracking is, as

boring as it may sound, the number of steps that I take each day. So, what have I learned by

counting steps and how many steps have I actually been striving to take each day? Well, you're

about to find out. But let's start with a quick history lesson first.

As I mentioned in my article about whether 10,000 really is a magical number of steps,

while manufacturers of fitness trackers such as Fitbit and Garmin might very well be responsible

for the current 10,000 step fixation, the hype actually started in Japan back in

1965. That's when a pedometer invented by Dr. Yoshiro Hattano, who worked for a company called

Yamesa, named his new device Manpo K, which translates to 10,000 step meter in English.

Now, before I throw poor Dr. Hattano under the bus, let me say this.

I'm sure he wasn't trying to perpetuate the greatest hoax ever pulled on the fitness community.

He was simply trying to come up with a name for his

device that would stick, and he really did succeed.

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