The Amish are among the healthiest and average longest living groups of people on the planet. The average number of steps per day was 18,425 for men versus 14,196 for women. Ninety-eight Amish adults (18–75 yr of age) in southern Ontario were studied.

Keep in mind, most of the men are farmers and many of the women participate in the farming activities. Unless your job requires you to walk, stepping over 12,500 steps a day might be difficult without multiple jogging sessions throughout the day.

Link to study

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I used to live in Waterloo, Ontario, right next to that Amish community, and on weekends when I'd drive up to see family near Walkterton I'd always see the Amish out walking (spring/summer) or riding in the horse drawn buggies. It is odd and amazing to see them walking along a country road in the middle of nowhere, realizing they're easily 7-8 KM from their church already and their home is still not in sight, so I don't doubt the steps per day.

That said, it's an oft repeated myth that they live longer than other North Americans. Their life expectancy is similar to or slightly less than non-Amish. Old Order Amish also do not smoke or drink alcohol which likely helps along with the additional exercise.

Fun side note; the clerk in the convenience store across from my apartment was a very friendly 20-something Amish girl who wore a dress and bonnet straight out of the 1800's along with modern Nike running shoes. Always struck me as an odd combination, but to each his or her own 🙂

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Nice Post

The farmers in Parts of India would easily do 20 k or more on a hot summer day these days

I infact did a session at my hospital with two of them and they were so inspirational to all my patients and staff last month.

Also had one of them wear my old Surge for 5 days before we did a session here they averaged 20400 a day and they are active for 8 hours a day only.

Unrelated point

Fitbit reduce your price a little and improve your visibility in this part of the globe and you would be surpurised by the millions who start using them here

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I live and work part time on a horse farm, and on the days where I tend to the horses, I easily have 10,000 steps before I ever get to the office (for my day job). On horse days, if I go for a noon or evening trail run before bringing them back in from the pastures, I easily end up with 30,000 steps; on horse days where I'm pretty much sedentary for the rest of the day I still usually rack up an easy 12,000-15-000 steps. 🙂

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I was raised on a farm, way back in the days before there were such things as the Internet or fitness trackers, but I can guarantee you that we got a lot more than 10K steps a day, except possibly on Sundays. A typical school day was to get up at 5:00am, feed & milk the cows (by hand), walk the cows out to pasture, feed the chickens and let them out for the day, bring in firewood (cooler months), wash up, eat breakfast, and walk to school (just under a mile). After school it was time for some gardening and gather vegetables for dinner, gather the eggs, climb up the hay loft and throw down hay for the cows, go to the pasture to get the cows and walk them to the barn, feed & milk the cows and turn them out into the feed lot. Then it was time for dinner followed by homework & bed to get ready for another day in the country. And, of course there were the days of plowing & planting, baling hay, harvesting crops, etc., that were extra curricular activities that were fit in between regular chores. Yeah, there were more than 10K steps in a day...

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Yeah, farm work rocks! When folks try to take me to task for not doing any cross training in addition to my running, I laugh at them and say my work with the horses is my cross training. 🙂

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The Amish don't have churches, so maybe you were seeing Mennonites.

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