Stepping into STEPtember
Written By Alex Osborne
This September (mostly over the holidays) I decided to walk/cycle 10,000 steps a day for the whole month. Now that might sound terribly out of the blue, andddd it is October now, but let me explain how I celebrated the brilliant month of September.
It was a typical August evening and I was sitting watching the typical television when a not-so-typical commercial appeared before my eyes… It was promoting this year's STEPtember! What’s STEPtember you ask? Well, it’s an amazing initiative that was founded in 2010 and has raised over $17,835,070 this year alone! The challenge takes place for 30 days and involves walking or partaking in a wide range of physical activities that, in the end, add up to 10,000 steps per day. By fundraising, the money goes towards valuable research that can identify babies at risk of cerebral palsy and provide useful equipment for over 40,000 people living with the condition. That is definitely a cause I was prepared to walk 300,000 steps for.
Organisations such as this that raise awareness and funds for people with cerebral palsy are incredibly important at times like these, where we are all basically sitting at home doing very little outside of our schoolwork and the endless zooms. It’s also a huge physical boost and a great use of your daily outside time that has suddenly become much more precious since lockdown started again. The mental benefits are also excellent as it gives you a huge motivation to complete each day’s steps and activities. I definitely felt great getting the exercises done and now I’m still compelled to keep going, even though it’s way into October!
Knowing me, it was sometimes hard to get through all 10,000 steps. When I couldn’t go outside due to weather, I would have to pedal it out on an electric bicycle at home, on which my exercise amounted to 8 kilometers. There was, however, an upside to this! I got to put on my speaker and listen to SHOW TUNES. HALLELUJAH!
Fun fact - on Broadway they sometimes train the vocals for large dance numbers on exercise bikes! Maybe that fact was only fun for me…
This is a challenge I will definitely be continuing in the future and I highly recommend that you do too! And if you're a fellow isolated caveperson, have no fear! You can get away with doing any activities physically possible because STEPtember can involve anything from Yoga and gardening to even doing CHORES - now that's something I never thought I’d hear. The organisation also has activities that cater for those unable to walk, such as wheelchair basketball and general manual activity ranging in intensities. The organisation has produced an app that, with some small bug fixes, works like a charm recording my steps with my input! There is also a way to record activities from a dropdown menu and it’ll tell you how many steps they equivocate to based on duration and intensity!
With this lockdown (oh no … here comes the sappy conclusion), I feel getting any exercise, whether being physically outside or finding other ways, is an amazing way to spend the time you have off school or work - plus,it's physically healthy! It's a terrific cause and I encourage you all to make it an even better campaign in 2022!
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