Ladies Hiking

When I saw this one-pager in my waiting room of my naturopathic guru, I knew I needed to share it.This is reason enough to walk (AKA hike) at every opportunity.

"If we just walked briskly for 30 minutes each day, healthcare as we know it would radically change in this country."

From: 30 Minutes for Life: The Benefits of 30 Minutes or More of Daily Brisk Walking, by Mark Baughman and Steve Tepper, the American Physical Therapy Association. 

When to Walk: Daily

How Long: 30 minutes daily or 15 minutes 2x/day or 10 minutes 3x/day

Benefits:

• Reduce the risk of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) and atherosclerosis. If everyone walked for 30 minutes daily at 3-4 miles per hour, it would decrease the number of CVD deaths per year by 30 percent (284,886 deaths/year).
• Reduce the risk of Diabetes (Type 2) by 58 percent in persons at high risk.
• Reduce the risk of Stroke by 24 percent walking 2.5 hours per week as compared to non-exercisers. Further reduced the risk of Stroke by 46 percent walking 5 hours per week as compared to non-exercisers.
• Reduce the risk of breast cancer by 20 percent in White and African-American women who regularly exercise for 7-15MET*/week/year compared to inactive females.
• Reduced risk of mortality with patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer by 25 percent compared to sedentary individuals. Further reduced risk by 50 percent if they walked 3 to 8 hours per week.
• Reduce resting blood pressure.
• Reduce risk of Osteoporosis.
• Reduce risk of Cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) in women by 31 percent.
• Reduce risk of depression among elderly adults. In elderly adults classified with major depressive disorder, a 50 percent reduction of the disorder occurred after 4 months of an exercise program.
• Improvedoverall aerobic fitness and functional capacity.
• Daily walking of 30 minutes for 12 weeks has been shown to lower overall body weight and decrease percent body fat.
• If we just walked briskly for 30 minutes each day, healthcare as we know it would radically change in this country.

And more. Read the 30 Minutes for Life one-pager, and I know you'll be as excited as I am to find reasons to hike - beyond the joy of the trail, that is.

*3-6 METs or 150 Kcal/day energy expenditure

Examples: walking 2.5 mph is 3 METs; walking 3.5 mph (brisk) is 4 METs; walking 4.0 mph is 5 METs.

(Reprinted with permission from the American Physical Therapy Association, 2008)