I love being outside and walking, but in the winter it doesn’t always sound like a good idea. I’ve been doing indoor step-count workouts on YouTube to keep my step count from going down on rainy days.
I’ve always thought I should be aiming for 10,000 steps a day.
I’ve always thought I should be aiming for 10,000 steps a day. This goal has a lot of well-known benefits, but a 2025 review in The Lancet found that you can also get good results with just 7,000 steps a day. A lower step count goal is also easier to reach, especially since the 10,000-step workouts on YouTube take about an hour and a half!
Fitness trainer BurpeeGirl made this one-hour workout so that you work for 30 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds, during which time you can see what the next move is.
I have been trying out three of the most popular 7,000-step walking workouts on YouTube. Spoiler alert: I have a clear favourite.
Fitness trainer BurpeeGirl made this one-hour workout so that you work for 30 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds, during which time you can see what the next move is.
There are eight rounds in all. At the end of each round, you have 20 seconds to recover, during which you can march or drink some water.
It definitely felt fast, but you could slow it down to a pace that works for you. Expect a lot of lateral steps, knee lifts, and arm exercises like shoulder raises, presses, and rotations that really get your heart rate up.
This was by far my favourite of the three workouts. I can see why BurpeeGirl has a huge 1.42 million subscribers and why her 7,000-step walking workout has 977,000 views so far.
I went to the Walks Of Life YouTube channel for my next challenge and tried the 7000 Step Challenge, which has gotten more than 749,000 views so far.
I went to the Walks Of Life YouTube channel for my next challenge and tried the 7000 Step Challenge, which has gotten more than 749,000 views so far.
An animated character shows you how to do each exercise, and a voiceover tells you what to do next. Arm kicks, arm reaches, leg taps, skaters, and double steps are some of the exercises.
The only thing I didn’t like about this workout was that the order of the exercises seemed a little random. The whole workout took more than an hour. Some exercises lasted 37 seconds, while others lasted 30 seconds. Most of the time, there were 23-second breaks for walking and resting.
The last five minutes are a fast-paced finisher with no breaks for walking. You do exercises one after the other for 15 seconds. I will always prefer workouts led by real people, but the animation and voiceover are easy to understand.
The music wasn’t my favourite, so next time I’ll stick to my own playlist.
Yes2next is a YouTube channel that wants to make fitness fun again for people of all ages.
Yes2next is a YouTube channel that wants to make fitness fun again for people of all ages. April, a personal trainer, and her 85-year-old mom, Aiko, lead this 7,000-step walking workout.
The low-impact workout lasts just under 50 minutes and is made up of three sets of five exercises. Each set has 60 seconds of walking followed by 40 seconds of arm exercises.
April made it easy to follow the routine and gave clear instructions on how to keep good posture the whole time. Aiko also shows how to change things up so that this workout can be done while sitting in a chair.
This workout was the easiest of the three, but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. I wasn’t even thinking about the music because it was so much fun to work out with April and Aiko. They have a funny and warm style that shines through in everything they do. This is why they have more than 600,000 subscribers and this video has been watched more than 400,000 times.
7,000-step walking workouts comparison
| Workout | Duration | Views |
|---|---|---|
| BurpeeGirl | one-hour workout | 977,000 views so far |
| Walks Of Life | more than an hour | more than 749,000 views so far |
| Yes2next | just under 50 minutes | more than 400,000 times |
