If you’re watching your daily step count, you may be overlooking another important part of the equation: your pace.

Taking fewer steps at a faster pace may be associated with a similar reduction in the risk of early death as getting in more steps at a slower pace, according to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The often-cited goal of 10,000 steps a day didn’t come from a specific scientific finding, said study coauthor Emmanuel Stamatakis, professor of physical activity, lifestyle and population health at Monash University in Melbourne. Rather, the target dates back to a 1960s Japanese pedometer campaign, he noted.

For some people, 10,000 steps can seem daunting and dissuade them from trying to start exercising. To “a 65-year-old managing a knee, a carer with fragmented time, or a shift worker, that number can feel less like a goal and more like a reason to give up,” Stamatakis said in an email. “Someone walking 4,000 steps a day who walks them with more purpose is doing something worthwhile, and someone who cannot walk quickly can still gain a great deal by accumulating more steps at a slower pace.”

To explore how the number of steps and the pace of those steps might work together, researchers analyzed movement data from more than 100,000 middle-aged adults in the UK Biobank, a longitudinal study that included participants from England, Scotland and Wales. Participants wore an activity tracker for seven consecutive days between 2013 and 2015, allowing researchers to measure both their daily step counts and pace.

The authors of the new study found that both walking more and walking faster were associated with a lower risk of death — suggesting that the benefits of walking may be less about hitting one magic number and more about finding a combination of steps and pace that works for you.

For the new study, scientists grouped daily step counts into four categories: fewer than 5,000 steps, 5,000 to 7,500 steps, 7,500 to 10,000 steps, and more than 10,000 steps. The team also calculated each participant’s “peak-30 cadence,” or their fastest sustained stepping rate during their most active 30 minutes of the day.

The study authors followed participants for about eight years, tracking deaths from any cause and from cardiovascular disease.

One of the clearest differences emerged among people taking fewer than 5,000 steps a day. Those who reached a peak cadence of at least 80 steps per minute had a substantially lower risk of death — comparable to that of people taking 5,000 to 7,500 steps a day at a lower cadence of about 60 steps per minute.