from the group meeting we were given the project theme of 10,000 steps. the understanding, decided meaning and method of communication surrounding this topic were up to us as a group and depended on the research we gathered and how we were to interpret it.
we began by thinking about what 10,000 steps could mean prior to gathering any information.
- literally 10,000 steps: taking 10,000 steps with your feet, stepping 10,000 times - i thought that it might have something to do with a healthy lifestyle before we researched it, something like getting 5 fruit and vegetables a day.
- 10,000 stairs: places or buildings with 10,000 stairs in them.
- 10,000 steps as tasks: steps as in guides/methods to achieving something. step 1 - do something, step 2 - do something else etc.
- 10,000 steps as a route: walks or routes that took 10,000 steps to do.
from these intuitive pre-conceptions we went online to gather secondary research that would help us to understand the theme and in turn our concept.
according to research i found online, and as advised by the nhs, people should aim to get around 10000 steps a day to maintain basic fitness and health. 10000 steps can help improve your cardiovascular, lower your colesterol and weight, produce positive endorphines and improve your overall health. by walking an average of 10,000 steps a day you can exercise a range of muscles that you can neglect if driving or taking the bus etc.
The average person walks between 3,000 and 4,000 steps per day, and 1,000 steps is the equivalent of around 10 minutes of brisk walking.
A person weighing 70kg (about 11 stone) can burn about 440 calories by walking 10,000 steps briskly (3.5mph).
The amount of exercise that is recommended depends on your age. Adults between 19 and 64 should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity – such as fast walking or cycling – per week.
so the nhs advises that 10,000 steps a day should maintain your basic healthy lifestyle in terms of physical activity. i found this an interesting concept as most people know and understand the recommendation of eating 5 fruit and vegetables a day as part of a basic healthy diet but it isn't nearly as well known about the physical activity side of it. i found it surprising that the nhs hadn't done more to promote this as a campaign like you see with other campaigns on tv. if people were to make an effort to include 10,000 steps into their daily routine the country may see a rise in health and fitness.
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) says 10,000 steps a day (about five miles) can give you a healthy heart and reduce body fat.
"If pedometers stimulate people to walk more frequently, that would be fantastic and could make a real difference to the nation's health."
An average walking speed is about 5 to 6 km/h (3 to 4 mph). It would take about an hour and 20 minutes to walk 5 miles.
Step Length: The distance from the heel print of one foot to the heel print of the other foot. This is the distance traveled forward by a single leg. An average that you will see listed in many places is 2.2 feet (0.67 meters) for women and 2.5 feet (0.762 meters) for men, but it depends very much on height.
You are not likely to get a useful value, based only on the person's height.
Surprisingly, height is one of the least relevant factors affecting step
size.
Step size (p - pace length) is determined by walking speed (v - velocity)
and pace frequency (c - cadence):
p = v / c
i.e. pace length equals walking speed divided by cadence.
Observe a column of soldiers marching - regardless of their height they will
be "in step". Thus they will be moving at the same speed, cadence and pace
length - regardless of their different individual heights.
i think the above information is really useful and intelligently presented. it is true that height does not really come into play when considering the length of a step. so i decided to test the equation.
it takes me approx 25 seconds to walk 100 metres so my average walking speed is 100m/25secs = 4m/s or 4 metres per second.
i take 48 steps in 100 metres so my average pace frequency is 100m/48stps = 2.08stps/m or 2.08 steps per metre.
so my pace length would be 4/2.08 = 1.92ft.
i think this size might be about right but im not sure that i used the equation correctly or did the maths right so i dont really know if this is correct but i measured by stride from standing a few times and it came out at 1.3ft, 1.5ft, 1.3ft, 1.4ft, 1.4ft. so from this i decided that my maths was out but it was still interesting and useful and theory and to find my average step distance which id say is around 1.5-1.6 feet.
The average person's stride length is approximately 2.5 feet long. That means it takes just over 2,000 steps to walk one mile, and 10,000 steps is close to 5 miles.
the average step length is 2.6 feet or about 31 inches
am currently a 21 yr. old Male at 5'11" with a stride of 34.42 +/- .42 inches
Each 2,000-2,500 steps is about a mile. Walking a mile burns about 80 calories for a 150-pound person. Depending on your weight, 10,000 steps burns between 250 and 600 calories. Most weight loss programs recommend burning 200-300 calories per day in moderate to vigorous exercise.
having gathered some information about steps and distances i felt it was important to understand a bit about how a step occurs biologically, so the muscle movements, the way the leg works etc.
Walks are very complex. Not only do the feet have to move across the ground, but the hips, spine, arms, shoulders and head all move in sync to maintain balance in the system.
a step is dependant on all the necessary muscles in the body working together. as the first step is taken the muscles in the leading leg (the one in the air taking the step) contract to pull the leg up into a bent position. at this point all the bodys weight is on the standing leg which is tensed and at the flattest point that entire foot (ball and heel) is touching the ground. as the body moves forward its weight is shifted to the balls and toes of the standing foot and the calfs of that leg tense to move the body up and forward in order to carry the weight to the other leg. as the leading leg comes down towards the ground the calf muscles relax and the thigh tenses to take the impact of that leg hitting the ground. the knee bends slightly to take the impact and the foot hits the floor usually heel first. the muscles surrounding the knee of the standing leg then contract as the wight is lifted off it and the leg is bent up into a near right angled position and then the process occurs the other way round.
the body's centre of gravity lies in the hips, so all motion must be equalled throughout the body via the hips in order to maintain balance. as the hips are connected to the spine the same movements the hips make are mirrored through the spine by the shoulders but in the opposite way. so if the right leg was the forward leg taking the step the right hip would rotate forward to carry the movement of the leg. to balance this out the right shoulder would rotate backwards to allow balance and the forward movement of the right leg.
gaining an understanding or how we walk and what occurs, biologically, when we take a step helped me understand the physics and practical application of walking, especially in order to get healthy. in understanding the process of the theme of our project i was more informed and focussed in working on our project.
from the idea of promoting 10,000 steps a day in a dictatorship/propaganda style format i did some research into dictatorships and existing propaganda to inform my understanding of the styles and tactics used.
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual: a dictator. For some scholars, a dictatorship is a form of government that has the power to govern without consent of those being governed (similar to authoritarianism), while totalitarianism describes a state that regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior of the people. In other words, dictatorship concerns the source of the governing power and totalitarianism concerns the scope of the governing power.
The most general term is despotism, a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group,[5] as in anoligarchy. Despotism can mean tyranny (dominance through threat of punishment and violence), or absolutism; or dictatorship (a form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator, not restricted by a constitution, laws or opposition, etc.).[6] Dictatorship may take the form of authoritarianism or totalitarianism.
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed towards influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument. Propaganda is usually repeated and dispersed over a wide variety of media in order to create the chosen result in audience attitudes.
propaganda is defined as; the systematic propagation of official government policies through manipulative communications to the public. The propaganda may provide true or false information, but the information is selectively presented in a provoking style to have its maximum emotional effect.
this example of american tobacco propaganda is great in visualising the methodology of connective points. in this poster doctors are the main focus. everyone accepts doctors as professionals who know about health and well being. you go to a doctor when you have something wrong with you and expect them to understand the problem and be able to help cure it. the poster then makes the point that in a survey it was found that camel cigarettes were the most smoked brand amongst doctors. the image of the doctor smoking makes this statement more believable and leads one to accept it more as truth. from these two separate points made (doctors being informed about health and doctors smoking camel most) the brain is lead to make its own informed connection and conclude that camel cigarettes are healthy because doctors smoke them (even though nearly eveyone smoked in those days smoked) and even though it is never actually stated this it what people are lead to believe.
this comic book poster is a more obvious example of how propaganda aims to strike fear into its audience in order to persuade a certain view of thought or a certain outlook on a topic. the fire and clear evil depicted in the poster is not an attractive sight, nor is it a desirable way of life. the poster, similarly to the previous example, makes two points and leaves the audience to 'connect the dots'. it shows an awful way of living and then introduces the idea that communism would be to blame if not for the allied war effort. an audience will instantly link the image and communism together to result in a dislike or even hatred of communism and communist states.
this anti capitalist propaganda poster shows the blunt format of capitalist society but mostly aims to appeal to the lower classes who would be most affected by capitalism and shows how they are the ones at the bottom being exploited. it communicates appropriately to its intended audience by visualising the struggle of the working class in relation to weight. they carry the heaviest load while the upper echelons of society live in ease. an unfair concept which is then exaggerated by the relation between size (few at the top - lots at the bottom) and weight (heavy load at the bottom - light at the top)
the classic propaganda poster to study is george orwell's famous 1984 'BB is watching you' poster. such an iconic use of block sans serif font and brooding imagery works because it is so simple visually and in terms of its message. another tactic of propaganda was to present the intended message so simply and bluntly to an audience that it was irrelevant their reaction because the point stood whatever. this overly confident and highly authoritative method worked in being so sincere that people had no choice but to believe and accept it. in this example people could be sceptical about whether the state could watch everyone always but the way the poster is presented and the tone of voice hint that the state doesnt care if you believe it or not, its simply informing you of that fact.
i felt it would be interesting and useful to gain some understanding of the actual length that is 10,000 steps and be able to picture it comparatively with some known routes, sights, places so its relative and not just a number.
the walk up to this buddah is 240 steps but constantly rising so your doin more exercise than if you just walked 240 steps flat. by walking it 41.6 times you would have done 10,000 steps but would have burned way more calories from the incline.
length of golden gate bridge is 2737 metres = 1.700693 miles. walking the length 2.9 times would equate to around 10000 steps.
oxford street in london is 1.5 miles long and so if you walked it 3.3 times that would equate to 10000 steps.
the height of mount everest is 8,848 m so walking its height once would get you more than 10,000 steps.
the height of the eiffel tower if 324 metres = 0.20132427 miles so walking the length of its height 25 times would equate to 10000 steps
the great wall of china is 13,171 miles long and walking its entire length would equate to around 26342000 steps meaning you would have walked 10000 steps 2634.2 times!
the circumference of the earth is 40,075 km or 24901.45 Miles so walking round the earth once would equate to 49802000 steps.
this website proved very useful as a motivational guidance tool for gettin 10,000 steps a day. http://www.wikihow.com/Walk-10,000-Steps-a-Day
having considered some initial reseach from different sites and publications it was now time for me to conduct my own research into my topic for the infographic along with general research for the project. since our project was on getting 10000 steps a day we thought it necessary to get pedometers to record the different distances we travelled inn a day and the relative steps that took.
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i was suprised to find out that after using the pedometer for a couple of days i was averaging near 10000 steps a day already and this was without even trying so we had found out that it wasnt that hard to achieve.
i recorded some known routes to find out the relative steps to distances that i know:
accomodation door to my room - 116 steps
accomodation to college - 743
college doors to studio doors - 109
accomodation to local supermarket - 442
i then went on to find some routes around leeds that eqauted to 10000 steps.
the otley run in leeds is a well known walk that is 2 miles and isnt even that far. doing this walk 2.5 times would equate to 10000 steps easily and if you do it fast (brisk walk) then it takes less than the 40 min average.
i went on to try and contrust my own route around leeds that went past some places of interest and provided a distance of 10000 steps
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