Good news for those who don’t hit 10,000 steps a day: that number was actually picked as part of a marketing campaign, and not because there’s anything medically special about it.

In fact, researchers think that we can significantly reduce our risk of heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, dementia, depression, and falls with 7,000 steps a day.

But not all of those steps (or any other exercise) might be equal, depending on the context in which we complete them, the activity paradox posits.

What is the “activity paradox”?

The “activity paradox”, or “physical activity paradox”, refers to a phenomenon that researchers noticed when looking at the health outcomes from exercise studies.

Per the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM), while physical activity is good for our health, “most physical activity research is based on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA)”.

LPTA........

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