Step up your walking

Walking is a free, enjoyable and easily-accessible form of exercise that has great health benefits.

According the Heart Foundation, walking for an average of 30 minutes or more a day can lower the risk of heart disease, stroke by 35% percent and Type 2 diabetes by 40%.

For the millions of Australians who are under-active (that’s 55% of adults according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare), walking more could be a huge step to better health. But what if you could get even more out of walking by simply strapping a tracker to your wrist?

To wear or not to wear?

If you’ve never used a wearable fitness device before, or you have one but it’s gathering dust in your drawer, you might be wondering how necessary they really are.

While there’s no doubt you can have a highly successful exercise regime without using a wearable device, there are some important benefits of using one:

• It helps you set goals
  Most devices will allow you to set targets for daily activity levels (e.g. 10,000 steps). Having that daily target can provide a bit of extra motivation to get out for a walk if you might be wavering on those cold mornings.

• It helps you keep track
  Without a device you may have no idea of how much, or how effective, your workouts are. Keeping an eye on your heart rate and duration of exercise can help you optimise your level of activity and increase the health benefits.

• It promotes healthy competition
  Challenging your family or friends to a step-related competition could be a good way to keep yourself and someone else active. Better still, inviting someone to join you for your regular walks could be a great way to stay in touch with friends or loved ones.