Make Walking A Part Of Your Healthy Routine

Walking is a great way to improve or maintain your overall health. Just 30 minutes every day can increase cardiovascular fitness, strengthen bones, reduce excess body fat, and boost muscle power and endurance. It can also reduce your risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and some cancers.

It is also a great form of physical activity for people who are overweight, elderly, or who haven’t exercised in a long time. To get the health benefits, try to walk for at least 30 minutes as briskly as you can on most days of the week.

If it’s too difficult to walk for 30 minutes at one time, do regular small bouts (10 minutes) three times per day and gradually build up to longer sessions. However, if your goal is to lose weight, you will need to do physical activity for longer than 30 minutes each day. You can still achieve this by starting with smaller bouts of activity throughout the day and increasing these as your fitness improves.

Some suggestions to build walking into your daily routine include:

• Take the stairs instead of the lift (for at least part of the way).
• Get off public transport one stop earlier and walk to work or home.
• Walk (don’t drive) to the local shops.
• Walk the dog (or your neighbour’s dog).

Try to make walking a routine – for example, try to walk at the same time each day.

Make sure your shoes are comfortable, with appropriate heel and arch supports. Take light, easy steps and make sure your heel touches down before your toes. Whenever possible, walk on grass rather than concrete to help absorb the impact.

If you have a medical condition, check with your doctor or call to set an appointment with one of our medical professionals on 03 5229 5192 (Myers Street Family Medical Practice) or 03 5241 6129 (The Cottage Medical Centre) before starting any new exercise program of physical activity.