7000 steps is the new number. Introducing the new 24-hour movement guidelines Australia.

You have probably heard that you should be doing 10,000 steps a day. Maybe you've hit that goal some days, missed it on others, and wondered quietly whether it even matters.

Here is what the latest Australian science says: 7,000 steps is the new target. And the step count is just one small part of a much bigger picture.

In March 2026, the Australian Government released updated 24-Hour Movement Guidelines, the most comprehensive rethink of how we approach daily movement in years. They cover not just exercise, but how you sit, how you sleep, and how you move through your entire day.

At Balance Health Phillip Island, we think these guidelines are worth talking about. Not because they're a government document, but because they reflect what we see every day in the clinic, and they give our community a clear, evidence-based framework for feeling better.

Let's break it down.

Why "24-hour" movement guidelines for Australia?

The older guidelines focused mainly on exercise: how many minutes per week, at what intensity.

The new framework is different. It recognises that your health is shaped by everything that happens across your whole day, how much you move, how long you sit, and how well you sleep. These three things interact with each other, and the guidelines now treat them as a connected system rather than separate boxes to tick.

This is something allied health clinicians have known for a long time. A patient who exercises for 30 minutes but then sits at a desk for nine hours without a break is not getting the same health outcomes as someone who moves regularly throughout the day. The research now backs this up clearly enough that it has made it into national guidelines.

What the guidelines actually recommend

Here are the key recommendations for adults aged 18 to 64.

Move with purpose most days

Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on most days. This accumulates to around two and a half hours per week.

Moderate activity means anything that raises your heart rate and makes you breathe a little harder, a brisk walk, a swim, a bike ride, gardening that gets you moving. You don't need to be at a gym. You don't need to be dripping with sweat.

Strengthen your muscles twice a week

Muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days per week. This includes resistance training, body-weight exercises, yoga, Pilates, or any activity that challenges your muscles against resistance.

This recommendation is often underestimated. Muscle mass is one of the strongest predictors of long-term health outcomes, especially as we age. It supports your joints, your metabolism, your bone density, and your ability to recover from illness or injury.

Work on your balance, mobility, and coordination three or more days a week

This is perhaps the most significant change in the new guidelines.

Previously, activities targeting balance, mobility, and coordination were only recommended for people aged 65 and over. The new guidelines extend this recommendation to all adults.

This is a big deal. Falls are not just a concern for older Australians. Balance and coordination decline gradually from middle age, often without people noticing, until they twist an ankle, stumble on a kerb, or find that their recovery from an injury takes longer than it should.

Incorporating balance and coordination work earlier in life is now recognised as an investment in your long-term physical resilience.

Keep moving lightly throughout the day

The guidelines also recommend several hours of light-intensity physical activity daily. This is the walking between meetings, the stretching between tasks, the standing up to make a cup of tea, movement that doesn't feel like exercise but accumulates meaningfully over the course of a day.

This is separate from your 30-minute structured activity. It matters because long periods of stillness carry their own health risks, regardless of whether you exercised that morning.

Sit less and break it up

Limit how long you spend sedentary, and break up long periods of sitting as often as possible.

This doesn't mean standing desks are the answer. The research is clear: replacing sitting with standing is not the same as replacing sitting with movement. Getting up and walking to the printer, doing a loop around the block at lunch, taking the stairs, these are the kinds of breaks that count.

Sleep well for 7 to 9 hours

Adults are recommended to get 7 to 9 hours of good quality sleep, with consistent bed and wake-up times.

Sleep is not a passive recovery from the day. It is an active biological process that repairs tissue, consolidates motor learning, regulates pain sensitivity, and restores mood and cognitive function. Poor sleep undermines the benefits of everything else you do for your health.

The guidelines also make an important point: do not trade sleep for exercise. If you are waking up earlier to fit in a workout but cutting your sleep to under 7 hours to do it, the trade-off is not worth it. Shift sedentary evening time into an earlier bedtime instead, then wake up earlier with your total sleep protected.

Australia is the first country in the world to include a specific daily step recommendation in national movement guidelines.

The evidence, drawn from a large meta-analysis published in The Lancet Public Health in 2025, found that most of the significant health benefits, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, depression, dementia, certain cancers, and falls, were achieved at around 7,000 steps per day.

This does not mean 10,000 steps is wrong. More steps still offer more benefit, and 10,000 remains a meaningful target for active individuals. But the evidence tells us that going from 2,000 to 5,000 steps per day and maintaining it long-term is worth far more than a brief sprint to 10,000 that doesn't last.

Progress matters more than perfection.

What this means practically

These guidelines are not asking you to overhaul your life. They are asking you to look at your whole day and make intentional choices across it.

Here are some honest questions worth sitting with:

On movement: Are you getting 30 minutes of purposeful activity most days? If your answer is "I walk the dog", that counts. If your answer is "I'm on my feet all day at work", that's light activity, which is valuable, but it's not the same as raising your heart rate.

On strength: Are you challenging your muscles in a deliberate way, twice a week? If you haven't done any formal strengthening since you left school sport, this is the place to start.

On balance: Can you stand on one leg for 30 seconds without grabbing for something? Balance is a trained skill, not a fixed trait. If this feels wobbly, that is useful information.

On sitting: How many hours do you spend seated without getting up? Most people underestimate this significantly. If you work at a desk, this is worth tracking for a day.

On sleep: Are you protecting 7 to 9 hours? Or are late nights and early alarms quietly eroding your recovery?

Where allied health fits in

These guidelines are a framework, not a programme. They tell you what to aim for, but they don't always tell you how to get there safely, especially if you are managing an injury, a health condition, or a body that hasn't moved much recently.

This is exactly where the team at Balance Health Phillip Island can help.

Our physiotherapists and osteopaths can assess where you are currently, your strength, your mobility, your balance, the way your body moves under load, and help you build a plan that meets the guidelines in a way that is appropriate for your body right now.

If you have been inactive for a while, jumping into vigorous exercise without assessment first can create new problems. A guided return to movement, with someone who understands how your body works, is a much safer and more effective starting point.

Strength and conditioning is something our clinicians deliver directly in the clinic, designed around your specific goals, your current capacity, and any injuries or conditions that need to be considered.

Falls rehabilitation and balance training is a structured in-clinic programme for anyone whose balance, confidence, or coordination has been affected by injury, illness, neurological change, or simply the gradual decline that starts earlier than most people expect.

Home exercise programmes are a cornerstone of what we do. If getting to the clinic regularly is not practical for you, we can assess you and build a home programme that addresses your specific gaps.

Gym guidance is something we offer for patients who already train or want to return to training. If you are unsure whether what you are doing at the gym is safe, appropriate, or actually targeting the right things for your body, one of our clinicians can review your programme.

Finally, our Physiotherapist lead Clinical Pilates programme, directly addresses the balance, mobility, and coordination recommendation now extended to all adults. Classes are small, supervised, and individually programmed. They are also accessible via private health, NDIS, and Aged Care/Support at Home funding.

A note on where you are starting from

One of the most important companion statements in the new guidelines is this: start small, then increase gradually.

Research consistently shows that the greatest health gains come from moving from very sedentary to moderately active. The marginal gains from going from 9,000 to 10,000 steps are smaller than the gains from going from 2,000 to 4,000. Where you start is not the point. That you start, and keep going, is.

Every move counts. Every break from sitting counts. Every extra night of good sleep counts.

You do not need to meet every recommendation perfectly to benefit from moving in that direction.

The bottom line

Australia's new 24-Hour Movement Guidelines ask us to look at health across the full day, not just the workout, but the sitting, the sleeping, and the incidental movement in between.

The key messages are:

• Move purposefully for at least 30 minutes most days

• Strengthen your muscles twice a week

• Work on balance, mobility, and coordination — this matters for all adults now, not just older Australians

• Keep moving lightly throughout the day

• Sit less, and break up long periods of sitting

• Protect 7 to 9 hours of good quality sleep

• Aim for 7,000 steps a day if you can track it, and know that every step above your current baseline is a genuine health gain

  
  

If you are not sure where to start, or if you have an injury or condition that has been holding you back from moving the way you want to, come and see us.

We will help you figure out where you are, and build a whole-person plan to help you get to where you want to be.

Book online or call us on 03 5952 2244.

This article is for general education only and is not a substitute for personalised medical or allied health advice. Please consult a qualified health professional before starting a new exercise programme, particularly if you are managing an injury, a health condition, or have been inactive for an extended period.

References

Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. (2026). Australian 24-Hour Movement Guidelines for Adults (18–64 years) and Older Adults (65+ years).

Ding, D., et al. (2025). Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: A systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis. The Lancet Public Health, 10(8), e668–e681.

Vandelanotte, C. (2026). Unpacking Australia's new 24-hour movement guidelines and daily step target. 10,000 Steps.