Is it better to track your steps daily or weekly? It depends on these 3 things

Regular walking can help reduce back pain, as well as improve exercise, mobility and mental health. But should you keep track of your steps regularly? Does it make sense to keep the same daily goal or should you aim for a weekly total?

“Walking is good for everyone,” Dr. Natasha Desai, director of the Women’s Medicine Center at NYU Langone, tells TODAY.com.

Not only is walking a free, accessible, low-impact activity, but it’s also something “you can do yourself,” Desai says. You can set goals and it’s easy to change them as you go.

Whether you’re working on recovery, general health or weight loss, the first step to creating a routine is to find your goals – and the best way to measure them. While some people have good luck tracking their daily steps, others may have more success with a weekly or regular goal in mind, Desai explains.

Here are some ways to find out what might work best for you.

Are you recovering from an injury?

For people recovering from injury, a daily goal is “very important,” Desai says, “because people don’t realize that bursts of activity are very hard on the body.”

If you’re working out after an injury, such as an ankle injury, sticking to small, realistic goals will “keep you in control every day,” he says. It also helps prevent people from doing too much too quickly, which can cause inflammation, swelling and pain, and ultimately set you back.

There is a psychological component as well. “People want progress,” Desai explains, and it can be difficult to monitor your status changes if you’re doing something different every day.

Are you motivated to reach your goal every day?

“From a fitness standpoint and from a weight loss standpoint, it’s definitely better to be more consistent,” explains Desai. And from a mental point of view, he says: “If you set a goal and you achieve that goal, it’s very good.”

So, if you find yourself highly motivated to reach your goal every day, a daily goal might make sense for you. And, for those reasons, a daily goal can also be beneficial for many people who are trying to lose weight by walking.

Experts recommend aiming for 45 to 60 minutes of walking throughout the day on most days of the week in order to lose weight, TODAY.com previously reported. They also recommend working up to 10,000 daily steps, but research shows that you can get health benefits with lower numbers.

But it’s important to start with a goal that makes sense to you, as TODAY.com previously explained. If you keep falling short of your goal, set your goal lower so that it can be achieved and improve.

Do you get discouraged when you don’t reach your daily goal?

Notice how you feel when you miss your goal one day.

“You have to see what kind of person you are,” explains Desai. “Are you the kind of person who likes to have that sign next to you every day? Or are you the kind of person who gets frustrated when you miss a day and fall out completely?”

For those who find themselves more discouraged by a no-mark day than encouraged by the days they hit their goals, a weekly goal finally makes sense, he says. You can track all your steps, like 70,000 per week. Or if you can walk more on some days than others, you can aim for an average daily walk.

But there’s a caveat here: Even if you’re tracking your steps every week, you should still try to spread your walk over several days, he adds. Spending five days sitting down and then rushing to get all your 50,000 steps in the last two days of the week, for example, will put you at risk of overuse injuries, says Desai.

Instead, aim to walk every day or three to four times a week, no more than two days in a row.

Consider other ways to measure progress

Measures are good to measure because they are simple and evidence-based.

But you can choose to track your location or time instead, depending on your goals and how you want to progress. For example, walking 1,000 steps briskly is a different type of exercise than walking 10,000 steps at a steady pace, Desai says.

Pushing yourself to go a little farther over time, whether it’s a distance or steps, will help improve your endurance. But if you’re aiming to improve your cardiovascular health or increase your calorie burn, lifting your legs, changing your pace from time to time or challenging yourself to walk the same distance as you normally would at a faster pace can you help

Of course, if you’re training for a major event, like a 5K walk, tracking your distance is important.

In particular, Stephanie Mansour, a certified personal trainer and TODAY fitness contributor, generally recommends measuring walking time when weight loss is a goal. By choosing a time-based goal in terms of distance or steps, you will ensure that you set aside 15, 30 or 60 minutes for yourself.

Regardless of your goal for the move, walking should be just one part of your workout, Desai says. Incorporating other methods, such as resistance training, mobility exercises and core strengthening, can help you reach your fitness goals and improve your overall health.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com