Simple steps walking program

Welcome Simple Steps walkers! Simple Steps will help you energize and reduce stress, engage with friends, and enjoy your community. Regular physical activity like walking can help prevent chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer and can help maintain a healthy weight. Simple Steps is free and easy to participate in — register between March 15 and June Starting April 1, you can log your walking time online to be eligible for rewards and prizes.

Share your success stories and photos to be eligible for other prizes. Check us out and join the conversation. Still, many people need some added inspiration to start and stick with a walking program.

One of the best ways is to find walking buddies, says Dr. Lauren Elson, physical medicine and rehabilitation instructor at Harvard Medical School. Elson says. Other people find motivation by using a pedometer to track their steps and distance, says Dr. Most stores that sell exercise equipment have inexpensive pedometers. Start by tracking your steps from when you get up in the morning to when you go to bed at night.

Take the average of your total steps for two or three days, then aim to increase your daily total by about 1, to 2, steps. Every week, keep increasing your steps by the same amount until you reach at least 10, steps per day. If you've suffered a heart attack or been diagnosed with heart disease, walking is an ideal exercise because you can easily adapt your routine depending on your fitness level.

If you have heart failure, ask your doctor to recommend a cardiac rehabilitation program so you can safely reap the benefits of exercise. This type of supervised exercise is particularly helpful if you haven't been active for a while.

Whether you start a walking program on your own or with supervision, plan to start slowly and work gradually toward better fitness—and follow these safety tips:. Always warm up with five minutes of easy walking to prepare your muscles and heart for exercise. At the end, cool down by slowing your pace. Walk in an indoor shopping mall if it is too cold, too snowy, or too hot to exercise outside.

Ask your doctor if you should take any additional precautions. If you haven't been exercising, the eight-week workout see "Get started walking" is a great way to begin. You'll gradually increase the amount of time you're walking, building up to the recommended minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week. That means brisk walking, as if you're in a bit of a hurry.

Your breathing rate should increase, but you can still talk in full sentences. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Please enable scripts and reload this page. Skip to main content.

Turn on more accessible mode. Turn off more accessible mode. Skip Ribbon Commands. Turn off Animations. Turn on Animations. Masks required by all visitors to county buildings age 2 years and older. Find out more on vaccine clinics. Toggle navigation Menu. Healthy Living. It looks like your browser does not have JavaScript enabled.

Please turn on JavaScript and try again.