Getting Active

Your Boots Are Made For Walking!

footprints

Walking is a gentle, low-impact activity that can ease you into other fitness and exercise activities. It's one of your body's most natural forms of exercise and offers many important health benefits. Set a goal to walk every day and you'll feel the difference!

 

Walk your way to better health!

  • Reduce your risk of a heart attack
  • Manage your blood pressure
  • Reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes, or manage your diabetes
  • Manage your weight
  • Manage stress and boost your spirits
  • Stay strong and active

Looking for a good place to walk ?

Click here to type in an address and see how walkable the area is!

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Start a Walking Group!

Tired of walking alone? Can't find any walking groups where you live? Why not start your own! Walking with others has lots of benefits:

  • It's safer than walking alone
  • It relieves boredom
  • It's fun and motivating
  • It gives you a chance to socialize and make friends
  • It increases your commitment to your walking routine

Here's what you need to do to get started:

Advertise. Post fliers in your local library, recreation or community center, senior center, health club, cafeteria at work or place of worship. Take advantage of free calendar listings in local newspapers or newsletters. The fliers should invite interested walkers to a meeting. Give people a day, time, and place. Choose a public meeting place like the library or neighborhood coffee shop. You also could include a telephone number for people to contact you.

Hold a Meeting: At your first meeting pose the following questions to the group

  • How many times a week the group will walk?

  • Where you will walk?

  • What time you will meet and how far you will go?

  • Will you walk if it's raining or snowing?

  • Does the group want to walk both indoors and outdoors?

  • Do you want to ban cell phones and headphones during walks?

  • Do you want to have regular meetings?

  • Will members call one another if someone can't make it, or will the group just walk with whoever shows up?

Remember, you can make this group as formal or informal as you like!

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Don't forget these important steps for safe and healthy walking:

  • Warm up

    Warming up your muscles reduces your risk of injury. Spend about five minutes walking slowly or in place to warm up your muscles. Increase your pace until you feel warm.

  • Stretch

    After warming up, stretch your major muscle groups for about five minutes. Learn more about Proper stretching techniques (Mayo Clinic).

  • Start slow

    At first, walk only as far as or as fast as you find comfortable. If you can walk for only a few minutes, let that be your starting point. If you keep at it you will find it gets easier and easier and you'll be able to walk long distances. Over several weeks' time, you can gradually work your way up to 30 minutes of walking five days each week.

  • Take the Talk Test

    If you're so out of breath that you can't carry on a conversation with the person you're walking with, you're probably walking too fast and should slow down.

  • Keep track of your progress

    Keeping a record of the distance you walk and how long it takes can help you see where you started from and serve as a source of inspiration. Just think how good you'll feel when you see how many miles you've walked each week, month or year.

  • Cool down after each walking session

    Cooling down after exercise is just as important as warming up. To reduce stress on your heart and muscles, end each walking session by walking slowly for about five minutes. Then, repeat your stretches.