As we come to the end of week three, the midway point of phase two, we alter the weekly blog update to focus on one specific area of the program. Walking…

Walking is incredibly beneficial, many studies have shown regular walking strengthens your heart, lowers the risk of heart disease, diabetes, asthma and some cancers as well as helping prevent dementia. All this can be done at your own leisure. You can stroll around town, hike cross country or walk a dog. As long as you enjoy what you are doing, walking will become a hobby.

Fitodyssey are great advocates of walking, encouraging participants to partake in the activity as often as possible. To encourage this, they organise weekly Dedham to Flatford walks over weekends.

Fitodyssey encourage the use of activity trackers helping us to understand how we live our lives, including how many steps we take each day. On average individuals walk around 3,000 to 4,000 steps per day, by increasing this to between 10,000 and 20,000 steps, we can begin to burn hundreds of calories. Don’t panic, it really is not that hard to increase the number of steps you take; you simply need to plan for it. Perhaps you can walk to work or use the stairs instead of the lift. Small changes like these add up to a big difference at the end of the day.

Remember, walking is not about finishing out of breath, you can walk at a pace that suits.. After all, a gentle walk will always be better than sitting on the sofa watching TV. Anything that raises your heart rate is good for your heart and circulatory system. So get your trainers on and start walking today,  you will feel better for it