How to Convert Exercise Bike Miles to Steps

Ten thousand steps in a day, or just short of five miles, has become somewhat of a mythical number on the way to wellness. Office wellness programs have adopted it as the goal number, and since a sedentary person can average as few as 1,000 to 3,000 steps per day as reported on The Walking Site, 10,000 steps a day may seem like an ambitious goal at first.

If you're participating in a workplace wellness program but prefer cycling to walking with a pedometer at your waist, you might be allowed to convert your distance cycled into steps and count it as progress toward the wellness program's ultimate goal.

Step 1

Stand square with your feet hip-width apart. Place a 12-inch piece of tape just in front of your toes. Take 10 normal steps forward, then place your feet together and put another piece of tape down in front of your toes.

Step 2

Measure between the two pieces of tape and divide by 10 to get your average stride length. So if you walked 25 feet between the tape pieces, your average stride length is 25 / 10 = 2.5 feet.

Step 3

Write down how many miles you've cycled. Multiply this number by 5,280 to convert it to how many feet you've cycled. So if you cycled four miles today, your calculation is 4 * 5,280 = 21,120 feet cycled.

Step 4

Divide the number of feet cycled by your average stride length, or feet per step. To conclude the example, you have 21,120 feet cycled / 2.5 feet average stride length = 8,448 steps taken to cover the same amount of distance you cycled.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil

• Paper

• Calculator

Tip

You may prefer cycling to walking if you have a back or knee problem that keeps you from supporting your own body weight, or from tolerating even the slight impact of each step when you walk.