There are several ways to measure your stride length. Here is one way:
Measure a length of twenty feet that you can walk. Start a few steps before the beginning of your 20 feet length to get into your walking rhythm and then count the steps you take from the beginning of the length until one of your feet crosses the “finish” line. Do this three or four times and then find the average of all those trials.
Here’s the math:
Trial 1 --- 13 steps
Trial 2 --- 14 steps
Trial 3 --- 11 steps
Trial 4 --- 13 steps
Add the total steps and divide by 4. In this case, 13 + 14 + 11 + 13 = 51. Divide 51 by 4 and you get 12.7, which I would round up to 13.
Next, divide the 20 feet by the 13 steps and the result is 1.5 feet. So, this person’s stride length is 18 inches, or 1.5 feet.
To determine how many steps it would take to cover one mile, divide 5280 by the stride length of 1.5 (you want to use feet for both, not feet for one and inches for the other). The result is that it takes 3520 steps for this person to walk one mile.
Once you know your stride length, you can use this chart to find out how many steps you take to walk a mile.
You will need to know your average stride length to set most pedometers
. After that, the pedometer does all the work for you, telling you your steps and mileage. A pedometer can help you track your distance, and it can also help you take more steps! Having that reminder there all the time will silently encourage you to take more steps. And, if you take the recommended 10,000 steps, then you will average 3.7 to 5.8 miles every day! Which is far more than most people walk in a day.
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