American Heart Association

Start Moving

from the American Heart Association

Learn how to balance your activity and dietary intake for a longer, healthier life!

Benefits of Walking
How Should I Get Started?
Calories Out

Start! is shaped for the realities of life. We all wish there were extra hours in the day, but weve got responsibilities, people counting on us and millions of excuses that keep us from taking care of our health. Start! will help you stop talking and start walking. Walking isthe one exercise that people stick with.It has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity.

It’s never too late to Start! Even if you don't begin walking until middle age, you’ll increase your life expectancy. The benefit is hard to measure accurately, but a Harvard Alumni Study conducted by Dr. Ralph Paffenbarger and his colleagues and published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1986 found that individuals lived two hours longer for every hour of regular exercise they did.

For the body, walking helps

• Reduce the risk of heart disease by improving blood circulation throughout the body
• Keep weight under control
• Improve blood cholesterol levels
• Prevent and manage high blood pressure
• Prevent bone loss
• Boost energy levels
• Increase muscle strength, increasing the ability to do other physical activities

For the mind, walking helps

• Manage stress
• Release tension
• Improve the ability to fall asleep quickly and sleep well
• Improve self-image
• Counter anxiety and depression and increase enthusiasm and optimism

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How Should I Get Started?

• Determine how active you are now — and work on up!
• Start slowly.
• Set goals — 30 minutes or more a day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
• You can divide the 30 minutes into chunks of 15 or even 10 minutes.
• Ask your spouse, a friend or co-worker to become your walking partner — it’s more fun and you can encourage each other!

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Calories Out
Thirty minutes of continuous brisk walking will burn more calories than gardening, mowing the lawn or sitting at your desk for the same amount of time.

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