Edmonton man walks the walk with 70,000 steps to celebrate 62nd birthday

An Edmonton man is spending his birthday at the gym, with the goal to walk more than 10,000 steps for each year he's been alive. Nahreman Issa has his story.

Doug Bush calls himself a bit of a “circus freak” when it comes to going to the gym.

He was there for the better part of Wednesday, his 62nd birthday, walking more than 62,000 steps.

“I did 62,000 on my 60th birthday, and then on my 61st birthday last year I did 64,000. So I thought this year I’ll push it to 70,000,” he told CTV News Edmonton.

His routine is simple. He laps his gym’s track 75 to 100 times each day, then lifts weights for two to three hours. He then rounds out his workout with – you guessed it – more walking.

Bush aims to walk 40,000 steps a day, far more than the 7,000 average the Canadian Medical Association Journal recommends. That works out to about 15 million steps per year, which is his approximate goal.

He started his personal steps challenge right before everybody began donning masks. His impetus was wanting to be able to keep up with the kids as a U18 AAA hockey coach. Then, the world shut down, and he had a lot of free time on his hands.

Once his kids gifted him a Fitbit to track the steps, a pandemic pastime became something much more fulfilling.

“I’m fitter than I was when I was 40 … I feel fit, I feel good. I don’t feel my age. I find it’s been rewarding that way,” he said.

His dedication has earned him something of a reputation among fellow gymgoers.

“I see him every day when I arrive at the gym. When I leave, he’s still walking,” said Iven Xiao. “The consistency to walk that many steps, get that much exercise, I can’t imagine it. Going to the gym is already hard enough.”

Of course, Bush doesn’t hit 40,000 steps religiously – he’s not crazy.

“I just work around my work schedule and fit it in when I can. I’m committed to coming every day and do it and put in the work. You have the odd days where you don’t get it done because of family stuff, or you’ve got commitments … you just kind of work around that stuff,” he said.

He does, however, walk the walk more than he talks the talk.

“Get up and do something every day. It doesn’t have to be a lot. You don’t have to do what I do, but you’ll feel that much better,” was his message to everyone.

“It’s hard to start, but after you do something, you never feel worse.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa