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Maybe
bad weather isn't the problem. You could be having difficulty
finding time to walk outside because your job schedule has
changed or home life demands have increased. Perhaps there
are no sidewalks, trails or safe pedestrian areas near your
home or work.
The solution:
take your walking program indoors. You'll avoid weather interruptions
and other challenges to regular exercising. Eliminating those
stumbling blocks will help you maintain consistency and get
closer to achieving the recommended 30 minutes of moderate-intensity
physical activity on most days.
Walk
anywhere, feel better
Although
"location, location, location" is the watchword
of success in real estate, it doesn't matter for healthy walking.
When you walk at a comfortably quick pace inside an office
building, school, fitness center, shopping center or your
own home (you'll learn how in a minute!), you get the same
benefits as when you walk outdoors.
"Take
a look at wherever your setting is and ask, 'How can I be
active in this setting?'" says Brigid Sanner, marketing
and communications director for Active for Life®, a national
research project on fitness in midlife funded by a grant from
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
There's
good reason to get moving. Moderate-intensity physical activity,
such as walking, reduces women's overall risk of death from
all causes. Walking also lowers your risk of developing Type
2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and breast cancer.
What
about weight loss? In combination with diet, walking can take
off excess pounds while also building your cardio-respiratory
fitness. Even for obese individuals who don't attain their
ideal weight, such activity -- when done regularly -- reduces
the risk of health decline.
So
many places, so little time
When
locations are convenient, indoor walking fits easily into
any schedule. "People can take a walking break during
the day," says Kit Keller, an organizer for the advocacy
group Wisconsin Walks. "The trend is toward collaboration
so that public buildings, schools and businesses can be opened
for greater good health uses." A county technical college
has connected buildings, which employees and students use
for exercise walking, Ms. Keller says, while some local governments
maintain community indoor tracks to promote walking in all
seasons.
In many
regions, schools and colleges open their indoor tracks and
other facilities to the public. The local recreation department
in Wheatland, NY, encourages residents to walk the hallways
at the Wheatland Chili High School from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on
weekdays. Seven times around the halls equals one mile, according
to town recreation director Diane Jennings, who says the program
is very popular.
Employers
are providing more opportunities for indoor walking. Increasing
physical activity means healthier workers. A.G. Edwards &
Sons, Inc., financial consultants, has a 1/3-mile track inside
the firm's corporate headquarters in St. Louis that's available
to all employees -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Fitness
centers and gyms have treadmills and sometimes tracks for
indoor walking. These places usually offer televisions to
watch or music to listen to while you walk, but membership
fees can be costly and the hours of operation might not match
your schedule.
You may
find there's simply no place like home for easy, comfortable,
inexpensive and time-saving exercise. "If you have a
large house, you can get a lot of walking going from room
to room. [In smaller houses and apartments] you can also march
in place while watching TV," says James O. Hill, PhD,
obesity researcher at the University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center, and co-founder and chair of America on the Move, a
national program that helps people and communities achieve
healthy changes.
To make
your in-home walks interesting and fun, check the library,
video store or online for walking DVDs and tapes. When you
pop these in, you get pace-setting music, advice on technique
and timed walk routines with a variety of movements. Walking
in your house is free, but you can also buy a home treadmill
machine for about $500 and up.
Marching
the mall
If you
can resist the smell of warm cinnamon buns wafting through
the air, you might enjoy mall walking. Many enclosed shopping
centers open early just for walkers and some stay open a bit
later for the same reason.
"We
have walkers all day long, all times of the year," says
Betsy Lackey, general manager of the Adrian Mall in Adrian,
MI. She describes the regulars as ranging from "people
with baby carriages to the very elderly." Two loops around
the mall equals one mile, she adds.
Malls
attract walkers because the centers are temperature-controlled
and have smooth floors, filtered air, security, bathrooms,
easy parking and -- yes -- a place to get coffee or a snack
afterwards. Those amenities might explain why research shows
that, compared to men, women walk faster in mall settings
than on traditional tracks. Some malls have organized walking
clubs, although many mall walkers form their own social networks
without the management's help.
Tips
on indoor walking
- Add
extra indoor walking opportunities. When you go to the
supermarket, walk around the outer aisles of the store first
before you begin shopping, advises America on the Move.
Do the same at warehouse clubs or giant discount stores.
Then walk up and down each aisle. At work, walk to speak
with co-workers instead of sending email.
- Use
a pedometer. These clip-on step counters help encourage
you to walk. Keep a log of how many steps you're taking
daily. Increase gradually.
- Don't
forget the stairs! Vary your walking workout by climbing
the stairs at home or work. Even short amounts of extra
stair-climbing improve cardiovascular health. Start out
by adding just one or two extra trips up the stairs each
day, then increase. Walk up escalators instead of standing
and riding. Exercise at lunchtime with a friend by walking
the stairwells at work.
- Practice
inefficiency. Ms. Sanner advises setting aside the TV
remote control and walking to change channels. "Take
one thing up the steps at a time," she says. "Make
four trips instead of one." She tells how a woman in
the Active for Life® program increased her indoor walking
by taking one piece of laundry out of the clothes dryer,
then walking it into the living room where she did her folding.
The woman then returned to the dryer for the next piece
of laundry, and so on.
- Walk
while you talk. Use a portable phone or wireless headset
and walk around the house as you carry on conversations.
- Call
the mall. Check with the management office at your local
mall to find out whether the shopping center opens early,
or stays open late, for walkers. If you have a choice of
malls, pick one with wide halls so you can move briskly
even when shoppers are there.
References
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Yes,
indeed, just as soon as the weather cooperates, you're going
to start (or get back into) taking regular walks to improve
your health and boost your spirits.