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Welcome to Elkford Steps Out
"Take a Walk on the Wild Side"
Congratulations for taking the "first step" to a healthier lifestyle and joining this very exciting program, Elkford Steps Out.
Elkford Steps Out is an independent walking program committed to motivate participants to get active and promote healthy living.
People tend to over-estimate their level of activity. The Accusplit activity peodmeter provides an accurate, step activity reading throughout the day. With a little extra effort and planning you can be life-style healthy without a single step into the gym or onto a track (although those are also good places to be active).
You derive excellent benefits if you do concentrated, aerobic walking (3-4 mph / 15-20 minutes per mile) in 10 - minute increments three times each day. Increasing your current activity level just a little helps to improve your health when you make it part of your daily lifestyle. The key to health and quality life is making activity a part of your lifestyle in the same way brushing your teeth is an integrated activity in your healthy lifestyle.
Lifestyle exercise sounds simple, but how does it actually work? What exactly do you need to do? And how much of it? The Cooper Institute conducted a lifestyle exercise study, cited in the Journal of the Amercian Medical Association.
This 30 minute a day of meaningful cardiovascular activity study concluded that almost anything would work. Although those who did their 30 minutes a day at a gym initially showed higher fitness levels, at the end of the two-year study period the groups evened out, and the "lifestylers" were actually better at maintaining their fitness. Why? Because exercise was thoroughly integrated into their lives. They didn't experience it as exercise, but as everyday life activity.
The Cooper Institute calculated that brisk walking (3-4 mph) 7,000 steps a day (minimum) to 10,000 steps a day (optimum) would easily meet the lifestyle goals of 30 minutes a day of moderately intense physical activity, the level also recommended by the U.S. Surgeon General.
You already have some workouts every day; carrying groceries, walking up stairs, mowing the lawn, vacuuming, washing the car, etc. which can be as beneficial as a trip to the gym. Since these are a viable alternative to time-consuming fitness routines, why not look for additional opportunities to increase your activity? If you are already into fitness routines, the activity pedometer allows you to set new goals and maximize benefits from other activities.
Why 10,000 Steps A Day?
10,000 steps a day began as a fitness program in Japan in the 1960's. Fitness is part of Japan's cultural heritage.
Step Out and Live!
The Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, Texas conducted the largest study ever performed on physical fitness and health (over 30,000 men and women). They found a strong relationship between the lack of fitness and other causes of death. A change in fitness, from unfit (overweight, sedentary) to moderately fit, reduced the risk of death more than a change of any other risk factor. That is, fit persons with any combination of risk factors (smoking, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, obesity) have a lower mortality rate than low-fit persons with one of these risk factors.
Good news! You don't have to be an Olympic contender to achieve the benefit of a longer, higher quality life. Studies show, simply going from below-average fitness to average fitness dramatically reduces the risk of disease no matter what your weight.
Don't think of fitness as exercises dones at a certain time of day, but as part of your total daily routine.