WalkFit    Walking for fitness and health

Walking is the most frequently recommended fitness program in the world, and the most convenient. You only need comfortable footwear and clothing, and it can be done by virtually anybody, almost anywhere, almost anytime.

Why walk?

• Weight loss. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, just 150 minutes a week is associated with modest weight loss, and more than 250 minutes a week can provide clinically significant weight loss.
• Improved heart health. Regular walking reduces the risk of coronary heart disease, improves blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and improves blood lipid profile (the balance of "good" and "bad" fats).
• Improved bone health. Because walking is a weight-bearing activity, and bones are living tissue, walking increases bone density and mass.
• Improved mood and mind. Studies have shown that low-to-moderate intensity exercise like walking improves not only your mood, but overall brain function.
• Improved recovery. On the day following a high-intensity workout (or a difficult tennis match), walking stimulates your body's recovery mechanisms.
• We are born to walk. The human body is exquisitely designed for walking - it is an incredible system of levers and muscles that allows us to move our bodies with relatively little effort.

Why do you need a walking program?

You might wonder, if we're born to walk, why do we need a walking program? The answer is simply that most of us have forgotten how to walk. We all had good walking technique at one time, beginning at about 12-18 months of age. But not too long after that, we went to school and started spending more time sitting than standing and walking, and it's been all downhill since then.

So how will this program teach me to walk again?

You can learn to walk the right way by treating walking as a full-body movement art, like T'ai Chi, swimming, or ballroom dancing. It is easy physically, but requires mindful practice, since most of us have developed bad posture, movement patterns and habits.

This program is based on a method called Chi Walking, and involves the following steps:

• Aligning the body, making the spine tall and straight
• Engaging the core, because all movement starts from the core
• Creating balance and symmetry around your center of mass
• Choosing to move forward in a specific way
• Moving forward, and keeping on moving forward

Coach: Bill Steele, certified Triathlon Coach (USAT), Swim Coach (ASCA), FMS Specialist, Personal Trainer (NASM - pending)

Sessions: Two (?) 60-minute sessions per week, for 8 (?) weeks
Member Cost: $???
Nonmember Cost: $??? for others
Class Size: Maximum 10