Walking is free! No gym membership required, and you can do it alone, or with friends. Walking has so many benefits with heart and lung health improvement, balance improvement, bone strengthening, body fat reduction and reduction of risk in having stroke and heart disease.

How much should I walk per day? Walking for at least 30 minutes/day, 5 days/week, maintains your weight. If you’re sedentary and don’t walk much, you will likely take 4000-5000 steps/day.

You may have heard of the goal for 10,000 steps/day. The number 10,000 became popular since a pedometer company in Japan advertised the 10,000 steps campaign (or Manpo-Kei, in Japanese) leading up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympic. Is this even good for health? 10,000 steps are similar to 5 miles or 8 km. The 10,000 steps for 5 days are considered to be a good aim if you want to stay fit and lose some weight from walking. If you want to increase the intensity, find some hills! Interestingly, an Australian study and a recent US study showed that challenging yourself to increase your daily steps, even to 10,000 steps/day is linked to a reduction of risk of death.

So let’s get started and invite your friends to join you!