Modern pedometers are small, user friendly and relatively inexpensive (approximately £20), providing a suitable tool for wide spread use. Pedometers can be used both as a means of providing motivation for enhanced physical activity and as a monitoring device to quantify this activity. The use of such devices within interventions to enhance physical activity must be based on evidence of effectiveness. It has been established that the number of steps achieved in a day can be used to categorise physical activity levels. The 'step defined lifestyle index' categorises individuals taking less than 5000 steps/day as sedentary, 5000-7499 steps/ day as low active lifestyle and more than 7500 steps/day as physically active. Those individuals meeting the 7500+ threshold appear to meet the moderate to vigorous physical activity recommendations for health. It is also suggested that achieving 7000- 8000 steps per day Is associated with achieving 30 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity. To gain an understanding of the significance of the stepping guidelines, it has been established that 3000 accumulated purposeful steps per day equate to 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, which is the recommended daily physical activity quotient for good health. These recommendations can be used as targets, not only for healthy individuals but also for others including orthopedically challenged patients recovering from surgery.