Walk Your Way to Fitness

A regular walking workout can benefit your overall health. Find out why fitness walking is so important and how you can get started.

If you’re like most people, you walk just under three miles every day in the course of your normal activities. Now it’s time to get a little more purposeful. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the Surgeon General all agree that at least 30 minutes of brisk physical exercise is good for your health, and walking is one of the easiest forms of exercise to get.

Some of the many benefits of a regular walking workout include:

Cardiovascular health. Fitness walking strengthens your heart, improves your circulation, and lowers your blood pressure. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine evaluated 73,743 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and found that women who walked briskly 2.5 hours every week reduced their chance of heart disease by 30 percent.

Bone health. As a weight-bearing exercise, walking can stop some of the bone loss of osteoporosis and may slow down arthritis.

Weight loss. A regular walking workout burns calories. If you walk 4 miles four times a week, you can walk off about a half-pound of fat every month. Weight loss combined with a healthy diet can also decrease your risk of type 2 diabetes.

Mental health. Studies show that fitness walking reduces stress and improves your overall sense of emotional well-being. A regular walking workout can help you enjoy deeper, more restful sleep, which may decrease your risk for anxiety and depression. How to Start Your Walking Workout

The speed and distance of your walking workout are not as important as the time you spend walking at a brisk pace. If you have any health issues talk to your doctor first and find out what is a safe pace for you. Start gradually and walk only as far and as long as is comfortable. Follow these fitness walking guidelines:

Work up to at least 30 minutes of brisk walking a day. Warm up by walking at your normal pace for about 5 minutes and then pick up the pace for about 15 minutes. While you walk, swing your arms and maintain good posture. Take long strides, but don't strain yourself. Slow down at the end of your walk and do some gentle stretching. Every week you should try to add about 5 more minutes to the brisk part of your walking workout until you can get it to over 30 minutes.

Keeping Up the Pace

Once you have decided to start walking for fitness, it's important to stick with it. The benefits of your walking workout take place and are maintained only over time. Here are some tips to keep you going:

Wear comfortable shoes. One sure way to lose interest in your walking workout is having sore feet. Take some time to get the right shoes. Your walking shoes need to fit your foot and the type of arch you have. Remember that your feet change over time. As you get older you may need more padding, more support, and more room, so have your feet measured regularly. It’s best to get your feet measured at the end of the day when your feet are larger; try on shoes with the socks you would wear for walking; and walk around for a while in the store before you buy.

Cultivate companionship. Walking with somebody else is safer, less boring, and more motivating. Many communities have walking groups you can join or you could start your own group. Walking with a friend or partner, taking along your dog, and making your walking workout a time you look forward to can help you stick with it.

Stay hydrated. Drinking enough water is an important part of a walking workout. Remember that you lose water through sweat even in cooler weather and that you don't start to feel thirsty until you’re already starting to become dehydrated. Drink about two cups of water before you start and another cup about every 15 minutes. Don't wait until you get thirsty.

Count the miles. Setting goals and keeping track of your progress can be a good motivator. You can set weight loss goals or mileage goals. Use a pedometer to measure the number of steps you take during your walking workout and keep track of your progress.

Just 2000 Steps a Day Keeps Diabetes Risk Away

Walking not only prevents weight gain in middle age but also helps prevent or delay diabetes....

Terry Dwyer, AO, MD, MPH, of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, found that middle-age Australians who increased their daily step count over five years maintained significantly higher insulin sensitivity at the end of that period than those who didn't boost their steps (P=0.03). This effect appeared largely due to lower adiposity and was independent of calories consumed, the group reported.

If causal, sedentary individuals who change their habits to walk an extra 2,000 steps (about one mile) a day might expect to shave 0.16 kg/m2 off their body mass index and boost insulin sensitivity by 2.76 units, the researchers estimated.

A relatively inactive person who gets to the goal of 10,000 steps (about five miles) per day could expect their BMI to drop 0.83 kg/m2 and their insulin sensitivity to rise 13.85 units -- a 12.8% increase from the mean for men and 11.5% for women.

Thus, sedentary individuals who reach 10,000 steps (about five miles) per day might expect a three-fold improvement in HOMA insulin sensitivity compared with increasing steps to a recent recommendation of 3,000 steps five days a week, the investigators projected.

Prior trials had suggested that exercise interventions fight insulin resistance, but Dwyer's group said their results suggest that real-world efforts to step-up physical activity are effective as well.

The researchers studied a group of 592 nondiabetic adults in the state of Tasmania who provided pedometer data for two days in both 2000 and 2005 as part of the population-based AusDiab Study, designed to determine the prevalence of diabetes and related risk factors in Australia.

At the beginning of the study, the average age was 51.4 for men and 50.3 for women.

Many participants were already overweight (57.4% of men, 36.9% of women) or obese (17.7% of men, 16.0% of women) at the outset and then gained further weight over the five year period.

Most got more sedentary as well with 65% showing a decline in step counts from 2000 to 2005, although another 35.5% increased their step counts.

Each additional 1,000 steps added to the daily count at the end of the five-year period was independently associated with 0.08 kg/m2 lower BMI (95% confidence interval 0.04 to 0.12) and 0.15 cm lower waist-to-hip ratio (95% CI 0.07 to 0.23).

Insulin sensitivity was also 1.38 HOMA units (95% CI 0.14 to 2.63) higher per 1,000 extra steps in 2005 versus 2000. The mean HOMA insulin sensitivity was 108.0 units for men and 120.4 for women in 2005.

The effect on insulin sensitivity dropped to insignificance after adjustment for body mass index in 2005, suggesting that change in adiposity with higher step activity was the mediator.

The researchers noted that their study couldn't determine the timing of changes in number of steps taken and likely missed some activity undertaken by study participants since pedometers only capture up-and-down motion.

Also, the actual energy expenditure associated with a certain step count varies by age, sex, height, leg length, and gait, they pointed out.