Walking for Good Health

Physical activity doesn’t have to be intense or for long periods of time in order to improve your health.  As a regular activity, walking can play a role in the prevention of heart disease, type-2 diabetes, stroke and some cancers, as well as your overall wellbeing.

Walking is a suitable low-impact activity for most people and can help you lose body fat, maintain a healthy weight and improve your overall fitness.  Almost all of us can begin walking for weight loss and fitness because a walking program is simple and relatively inexpensive to start.  You can get out and walk without needing to worry about some of the risks associated with other more vigorous forms of exercise.

Walking 30 minutes a day

To get maximum health benefit, try walking for at least 30 minutes as briskly as you can for most days of the week.  “Brisk” means that you may be out of breath a little, but can still comfortably talk.  Moderate activities such as walking pose little health risk but if you have a medical condition, check with your doctor before starting your training program.

Add Physical Activity into your Life

Physical activity built into your lifestyle is one of the most effective ways to assist with weight loss and keep weight off once it has been lost.  Some suggestions to build walking into your day includes:

• Get off public transport one stop earlier and walk to work or home.
• Try taking the stairs instead of the lift.
• Do household work such as vacuuming as vigorously as possible.
• Walk your dog, or borrow your neighbour’s dog if you don’t have one.
• Walk to the local shops instead of driving.

If you find it difficult to walk for 30 minutes at one time, start with regular 10 minute walks three times a day and gradually build up to longer times as your fitness improves.

If your goal is weight loss, you will need to do exercise for over 30 minutes a day.  You can achieve this by starting with smaller workouts throughout the day and increasing the training sessions to more than 30 minutes once your fitness levels improve.