Chiro Nucleus members participated in the inaugural physical health challenge last month.

Each month will explore a different physical health activity that is inspired by #science and hopefully a cool, play on words name for the given month (hence, STEP-TEMBER).

The goal with these monthly challenges is to investigate the literature and find research that gives us confidence that participating in these challenges will lead to measurable increases in physical health. Wearable devices that track these physical activities are an essential tool for  data collection, so that our results are objective and "data-driven." It is encouraged that everyone obtains some form of a wearable device, like the Apple Watch, in order to participate.

The inspiration for the STEP-TEMBER challenge came from this article, published in March 2022 in the Lancet, Public Health:

Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts

The findings of this meta-analysis can be boiled down to these 5 key take-aways:

1) Compared to adults in the lowest steps per day quartile (3553 steps/day), adults in the highest steps per day quartile (10,901 steps/day) had a 40% to 53% lower risk of mortality.

2) Taking more steps per day was associated with a progressively lower risk of all-cause mortality, up to a level that was similar by sex, but varied by age.

3) There was progressively lower risk of mortality among adults (aged 60 years and older) until about 6,000–8,000 steps per day.

4) There was progressively lower risk of mortality among adults (younger than 60 years) until about 8,000–10,000 steps per day.

5) There was inconsistent evidence that step intensity was associated with risk of mortality beyond total volume of steps.

Essentially, increasing your steps/day can significantly decrease your risk of death, and the number of steps required are not based on the speed or intensity of the steps, and less steps than what was once conventionally thought are required to receive these health benefits. The convention of 10,000 steps/day apparently originated from an old marketing campaign in Japan, where they found a round number was easier for people to remember, even though significant health benefits have been found to emerge well before the 10,000 steps/day benchmark.

Knowing this, the criteria for participation in the STEP-TEMBER Challenge was as follows:

Required technology: Wearable device, like a watch, ring, or phone app, that can track steps. After the month had past, each participant sent in a screenshot of their daily average steps. Pretty simple!

Each Physical Health Challenge has two components that are rewarded with raffle tickets for a drawing to win a prize. This is to provide some amount of extrinsic motivation, which might help some people try harder or decide to participate in the first place!

Components:

1) Participation

2) Competition

Participation - Earn 1 raffle ticket each for tracking, meeting, and exceeding the outlined goals below:
1) Sent screenshot of daily average steps on October 1st.
2) Met the baseline goal of 8,000 daily average steps.
3) Exceeded the goal of 10,000 daily average steps.

Competition, Part 1- Earn 1 bonus raffle ticket for beating Dr. Baker (an easy task as his meniscus was torn!)
1) Have more daily average steps than Dr. Baker

So in total, a participant can earn up to 4 raffle tickets.

Competition, Part 2 - Win a STEP-TEMBER Champion T-Shirt for having the most daily average steps amongst all participants

1) Winner = most daily average steps of everyone!

The winner of the raffle will get their choice from the Prize Wall, which is always open to suggestions!

Here are the current list of prizes:
Apple Watch

HyperVolt Massage Gun

Air Pods

Meta Quest 2

Marc Pro

Garmin Watch

Whoop

FitBit

Pickleball Paddle

TRX Suspension Trainer

Digital Workout Clock

Bosu Ball

Oura Ring

Rogue Fitness Equipment

The raw data for the competition can be found at the bottom of this blog article. Initials were used for names to keep it anonymous.

STEP-TEMBER FUN FACTS:

12 of 22 eligible people participated.

The most commonly used tracking device was the Apple Watch.

Seven different devices were used to track steps.

The 12 participants completed a total of 104,770 steps.

The average of all 12 participants was 8,731 daily average steps.

STEP-TEMBER RAFFLE STATS:

28 total raffle tickets were earned for the raffle.

Each raffle ticket had a 3.57% chance of being drawn.

If you earned all 4 raffle tickets, the chance of one of your tickets being drawn was 14.29%.

STEP-TEMBER WINNERS:

Congrats to AB for the highest daily average steps - 13,462!

Congrats to LW for the highest peak steps in one day - 37,728!
Congrats to AB for winning the raffle! A double winner!

And that's a wrap on STEP-TEMBER - thanks so much for participating!

Stayed tuned for next month's physical health challenge - CARDI-O-CTOBER!

Keep on steppin'

Dr. Chris Baker, D.C. | Mobile Chiropractor
Chiro Nucleus

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