How many steps do you take?

Students with a busy schedule, especially around finals time, might be cutting exercise out of their daily routine.

But just because you’re not heading to the Wellness Center every day doesn’t mean you’re not living an active lifestyle. It’s easy to fit an active lifestyle into regular student routine by simply choosing to walk more and the University of South Dakota’s administrati on’s efforts to make USD a walking campus could help you out.

The Volante gave six of its staffers pedometers to track their daily step count for a week. The recommended daily step count is 10,000 steps.

Taking 10,000 steps a day is about the equivalent of the Surgeon General’s recommendation of getting 30 minutes of activity. Ten thousand steps is also the equivalent of walking five miles. Compute how many steps in a mile you can do. You may also visit a fitness center regularly or invest in a rebounder so you can squeeze in a quick workout within your busy day. You may invest in a Certified Refurbished Fitness Equipment if you want to  engage in various forms of exercises. It is also advised that you get yourself some gym clothes.

Racking up that number might seem difficult, but if your class schedule takes you across campus, you might already be close.

For instance, for a woman of average height, walking from the Muenster University Center to Old Main or North Complex is approximately 500 steps.

Walking from the Warren M. Lee Center for the Fine Arts to the Al Neuharth Building is more than 1,000 steps. And from Neuharth, back to Old Main, it’s 700 steps.

Sophomore designer editor Valerie Menning was close to 10,000 steps every day because she lives off campus and chooses to walk because of the parking situation on campus.

The graphs below illustrate the rest of our staff’s walking habits. Each color represents a person, and the red line marks the 10,000 recommended steps per day.

Check out VolanteOnline.com for a map showing the steps between campus to figure out how you

match up.

Nolan Peterson

I found my results matched what I thought they would be. I wasn’t surprised to find the night I went to a concert and had a party my steps were way up, and you can imagine why my steps the following day were abysmally low.

Jessica Kokesh

I was most surprised by my Tuesday statistics. Because The Volante goes to print, I thought I’d have much fewer steps than other days.

But Tuesday turned out to be my highest day. Yay for being busy!

Kendall Schneider

As a grad student I practically live at the library and barely see the light of day so my results didn’t surprise me.

To offset my academic immobility, I walk to my classes as well as walk to the Wellness Center to work on my fitness.

Nina Larson

At first I was disappointed with my results because I love to run, I thought that just couldn’t be. Turns out my pedometer wasn’t picking up all my steps when on my hip. So Thursday I put it on my shoe and my numbers went up.

Rob Nielsen

I wasn’t surprised by my results. I know I usually find myself walking around a lot more whenever I’m working on assignments for the Volante. Tuesday nights are especially active.

Valerie Menning

I found my results to be pretty average. During my week days, my schedule is pretty consistent. I walk to class, do stuff for The Volante and then I go to the Wellness Center when I have time. Obviously I slack on the weekends.

Reach reporter Jessica Kokesh at [email protected].