The Step Counting Craze – Game On Across the Country

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Shipments of high-tech fitness bands have exploded over the past year, increasing by nearly 700 percent. As more and more of us take to wearing our Fitbits and Jawbone Ups to amp up awareness of our daily fitness quotas, friendly competitions for who can log the most steps in a day are heating up between couples, neighbors and even workplaces – most notably on Capitol Hill.

In Washington, D.C., where political gridlock is often a recurring theme, lawmakers and congressional staffers are at least trying to physically move more, according to a recent article in The Washington Post which describes how Fitbit-wearing power walkers vie for step supremacy. The story reports that the fitness rivalry extends beyond the Hill, and notes that the Foggy Bottom crowd has even been bitten by the fitness-band bug, with the State Department organizing a five-week walking competition involving teams with names such as “Agony of De Feet” and the “Holy Walkamolies.” And that’s not the end of it, as these friendly competitions are taking shape across the country and are likely coming to a workplace or neighborhood near you.

Despite this newfound obsession with counting steps, sparked in large part by the advent of wearable fitness bands, our nation’s capital doesn’t come in first in the steps-per-day competition. 

According to data published by the personal fitness tracker Jawbone UP, the District of Columbia ranks third in average steps per day amongst its users in major U.S. cities, with about 8,262 average steps per day, behind first-place New Yorkers, logging 8,704 steps per day, and second-place Bostonians, coming in at 8,471 steps per day.

With a variety of affordable fitness trackers currently on the market, and growing excitement over future launches, the step-counting competition is likely to continue and spread, helping to spur more and more of us to adopt a healthier, more active lifestyle and aim for the recommended 10,000 steps per day.

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