stackhaus step-up

The Stackhaus Step-Up is a free, month-long steps competition designed to help you build a more active lifestyle. Over the course of a full month, participants' steps will be tracked and visible to everyone in the challenge. At the end of the month, top performers will win prizes!  

This steps competition morphed out of a competition between cousins for monthly steps. Daily averages quickly grew from about 10,000 to over 30,000 steps. The new habits formed from tracking steps and competing stuck for good. Now, we’re opening the challenge to the broader Stackhaus community.

You do not need to be competing for a prize to participate! This challenge is intended to motivate and inspire you to do what you do need to do to create a lifestyle with more movement.  Get in your steps via running, walking, hiking, or just moving around more during the day. Everyone is bioindividual- do what is optimal for you!

Remember, a body in motion stays in motion!

Registration will open back up in February! Subscribe for updates!

Why step? In a recent study, Xu et al. (2024) found that "daily steps are associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events". In fact, virtually all the literature agrees on the simple point that walking and moving your body correlates with better health outcomes.

How many daily steps are optimal? Research shows that even modest increases in daily steps (as little as 1,000 more per day) are linked to measurable health benefits. In general, more steps correlate with better outcomes. Some studies suggest a plateau in benefits above a specific threshold, but unlike other exercise modalities, there’s no strong evidence that higher step counts become harmful.

Exactly where the plateau lies isn’t universally agreed upon. For example, Saint-Maurice et al. (2020) found that participants walking more than 12,000 steps per day had the greatest benefit compared with lower step groups; but, since the study capped out at ~12,000 steps, we don’t know if benefits continue to climb beyond that.

Ultimately, optimal step count is individual. Factors such as age, baseline health, fitness level, and recovery capacity all influence how many steps are most beneficial for you.

This is not medical advice, and you may consider consulting with a qualified health professional.