Step Banking

I offered to explain this concept in an earlier post. The idea of step banking does not apply only to arthritics; it may apply to anyone with bad feet, legs, etc. So I've been told.

Imagine, if you will, that you are allotted only so many pain-free walking steps each day. Say this number is 5,000 (this number is hypothetical and arbitrary, being used for the purpose of explanation; your "number" will be different based on the factors of your infirmity). You can walk that many steps in a day without having your feet (legs, etc.) hurt.

Now, if you do go past this allottment, this does not necessarily mean your feet will start hurting right there. What it tends to do, actually, is subtract from the amount of painless steps you can take the next day. To continue our illustration, say you walk 6,379 strides in a day. This means you will only get 3,621 steps the next day (Day 1: 5,000-6,379= -1,379, which is subtracted from your base total for the next day; Day 2: 5,000-1,379=3,621 treads you start the day with). You do not get those 1,379 footfalls back. If, that next day, you walk your usually allotted 5,000 paces, you will only get 2,242 steps the day after (Day 3: your adjusted base total of 3,621 carries over, because there was no opportunity to replenish your stock of footfalls. Thus, Day 2 works out as: 3,621-5,000= -1,379; Day 3: 3,621 carries over as base, which means 3,621-1,379=2,242. I know, it's complicated.)

So how do you replenish your stock of viable steps? By resting. To again hypothetically quantify, you could say that for every hour of rest, you get 200 steps back. If you rest for four hours, you get 800 painless footfalls returned. If you rest for eight, you get 1,600. If we apply this to our example:

Day 1: You walk 6,379 steps.
Day 2: You're allotment of steps for today would be 3,621 strides, but you rested for six hours for a gain of 1,200 strides returned to you. Therefore, you would have 4,821 pain-free treads alotted for today.

Certain activities enact a penalty applied to your amount of steps. For instance, in my case, stairs would equal 1 1/2 footfalls each, and each tread taken on uneven ground would equal two steps on a flat surface. Standing in one place, for me, is also bad. Every minute of standing still eats into my allotted paces for the next day. To continue our example:

Day 1: You walk 6,379 steps.
Day 2: After resting for six hours, you are alotted 4,821 strides for today. You walk 3,000 on the floor in your office and home, but had to do some field work, and walked 1,500 paces in a grassy, gopher-ridden field. Those 1,500 footfalls in the field are equivalent to 3,000 normal steps. Instead of 4,500 strides used, you have thus taken, for the purposes of banking, 6,000 steps that day.
Day 3: You have 3,821 steps banked again for this day. If you had walked all your paces on day 2 on flat ground, you would have reset to your normal 5,000.

You cannot build up a reserve of possible treads for the next day by resting extra. You will always start out with 5,000. Also, when resting, the longer you are continuously off your feet, the more effective it is. If you rest for four hours, but do so by getting up every ten minutes, you will pretty much negate the effect.

Now, mind you, there are no actual numbers involved. But when you've had your affliction long enough, you'll know. You'll be able to tell exactly which footfall will start inhibiting your ability to move the next day. My advice at that point is go sit for a few.