Squats or 10,000 Steps: Which One Actually Does More?

Quick Take

• 10,000 steps comes from a Japanese pedometer marketing campaign in 1964 — no study ever established it as an optimal health target.
• 7,000 steps/day is associated with a 47% lower all-cause mortality compared to 2,000 steps; benefits taper off after that (Ding et al., 2025, Lancet).
• Bodyweight squats measurably improve muscle mass, body fat, and strength — but they don't replace cardiovascular activity for your heart.

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You carry your step goal around with you. 10,000 — engraved on your wrist, the default in every fitness app, lurking in the back of your mind on every trip to the coffee machine. But where did that number actually come from?

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10,000 Steps — and Where That Number Really Comes From

The answer is less glamorous than you might think: a Japanese device manufacturer made it up.

Just before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the Yamasa Corporation launched a pedometer. It was called "Manpo-kei" — in Japanese: man = 10,000, po = steps, kei = meter. The device was a commercial hit. The number stuck. A clinical study establishing 10,000 as the optimal daily target? Didn't exist back then — and still doesn't as a direct basis for that specific figure.

What the research actually shows is a different story. The most recent meta-analysis on the topic (Ding et al., 2025, Lancet Public Health) analyzed 57 studies from 35 cohorts. People who walk 7,000 steps per day instead of 2,000 have a 47% lower risk of dying from any cause (HR 0.53 [95% CI 0.46–0.60]). The risk of heart disease drops by 25%, dementia by 38%, depression by 22%.

And what happens after 7,000 steps? The curve flattens. For all-cause mortality, heart disease, dementia, and falls, the inflection point sits around 5,000–7,000 steps — after that there's still benefit, but the gain per additional step is much smaller.

An earlier meta-analysis (Paluch et al., 2022, Lancet Public Health) of 47,471 participants from 15 countries reaches the same conclusion: in people under 60, the mortality benefit plateaus at around 8,000–10,000 steps. For those over 60, it plateaus at 6,000–8,000. More isn't worse — it's just not linearly better.

Walking is good for your heart, blood pressure, and mood. That's not in question. But the goal of "10,000 every day or nothing" sets a false benchmark.

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What Squats Can Do — and What They Can't

Squats are probably the most efficient exercise you can do without any equipment. Quads, glutes, lower back, core — everything gets recruited at once.

Takai et al. (2013, Journal of Sports Science and Medicine) measured what 8 weeks of bodyweight squats actually do: body fat −4.2%, lean body mass +2.7%, thigh muscle thickness +3.2%, knee extension strength +16%. The study was conducted on adolescents — but the physiological mechanisms behind these results aren't exclusive to 14-year-olds.

The leg muscles are among the largest muscle complexes in the body. Whole-body MRI data show that the thighs and lower legs together make up one of the two most dominant muscle groups in the entire body (Abe et al., 2003, BJSM). Training the legs means training the most metabolically active tissue.

The Metabolic Effect

Muscle mass costs energy — even at rest. More muscle means more calories burned without doing anything extra. Strength training also increases the afterburn effect (EPOC): oxygen consumption stays elevated for hours after training as the body repairs muscle tissue and restores energy stores. This effect is greater after resistance training than after aerobic exercise of the same duration (João et al., 2021, Frontiers in Sports and Active Living).

What squats don't replace: cardiovascular endurance. Someone who does 15 minutes of squats daily but otherwise sits has strong legs — and an untrained heart.

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The Direct Comparison — What Do You Actually Need?

Squats and walking train different systems. The question "which is better?" assumes they pursue the same goal — they don't.

	10,000 Steps/Day	10–15 Min. Squats Daily
Time required	~80–100 minutes	10–15 minutes
Primary benefit	Cardiovascular, blood pressure, mood	Muscle mass, metabolism, bone density
Equipment	None	None
WHO recommendation	Not mentioned as a step target	✅ Strength training 2×/week (Strong Recommendation)
Replaces the other?	No	No

If you want to prevent diabetes, strengthen your cardiovascular system, or maintain weight long-term: regular walking has a direct, well-supported advantage here.

If you want to preserve muscle mass, build bone density, or raise your resting metabolic rate: no endurance training replaces strength training. The WHO 2020 guidelines are clear on this: strength training twice weekly is a standalone recommendation — not an optional add-on.

If you only have 10 minutes: 10 minutes of squats beats 0 minutes of walking. Someone who does 3 sets in the morning and walks to the subway in the evening is in solid shape.

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What This Means for Your Daily Life

The "either/or" question is the wrong question. You need both — in realistic doses.

The WHO recommends 150–300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week plus strength training 2×/week for adults. In practice, that looks roughly like:

• 5× 30-minute walks or bike rides (~5,000–6,000 steps per session)
• 2× 10–15 minutes of bodyweight strength training — squats, push-ups, lunges

That's not 10,000 steps every day. It's not hours at the gym. It's a combination that fits into a full schedule.

Squats are practical: they work anywhere, no equipment or membership required. 3 sets of 15 reps in the morning before you leave the house — that counts.

The easiest way to accumulate steps is through everyday activity: stairs instead of the elevator, getting off one stop early, walking during lunch. People who can't carve out dedicated walking time still reach 5,000–7,000 steps — landing squarely in the range where most health benefits occur.

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Conclusion

10,000 steps was a successful marketing campaign. What the research actually shows: 7,000 covers most of the benefit — and even 5,000 steps a day beats inactivity by a wide margin.

Squats train what walking can't: muscle mass, bone density, metabolism. Walking trains what squats can't: heart health, endurance, cardiovascular capacity.

The best answer to "which is better?" is: stop pitting them against each other. Do both — in the doses that fit your life. 2× a week of 10-minute strength training and 30 minutes of daily movement. That's not a radical recommendation. It's what the guidelines have said for years — just rarely stated this plainly.

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Sources

1. Ding D et al. (2025). Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Lancet Public Health, 10(8), e668–e681. DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00164-1
2. Paluch AE et al. (2022). Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts. Lancet Public Health, 7(3), e219–e228. DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00302-9
3. Saint-Maurice PF et al. (2020). Association of Daily Step Count and Step Intensity With Mortality Among US Adults. JAMA, 323(12), 1151–1160. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.1382
4. Bull FC et al. (2020). World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. Br J Sports Med, 54(24), 1451–1462. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-102955
5. Takai Y et al. (2013). Effects of body mass-based squat training in adolescent boys. J Sports Sci Med, 12(1), 60–65. PMCID: PMC3761779
6. Abe T, Kearns CF, Fukunaga T. (2003). Sex differences in whole body skeletal muscle mass measured by MRI. Br J Sports Med, 37(5), 436–440. DOI: 10.1136/bjsm.37.5.436
7. João GA et al. (2021). Acute Behavior of Oxygen Consumption, Lactate Concentrations, and Energy Expenditure During Resistance Training. Front Sports Act Living, 3:797604. DOI: 10.3389/fspor.2021.797604
8. Hammond C. (2019, July 29). Do we need to walk 10,000 steps a day? BBC Future. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190723-10000-steps-a-day-the-right-amount