Keeping Track Of Your Progress Using A Pedometer
Walking is an excellent way to shed a few pounds, get in shape, achieve a whole range of significant health benefits and generally to increase your overall fitness level. It’s a low impact workout that doesn’t require any special equipment, training or expertise. You can do it just about anywhere – there’s no need to visit the gym – which means that there are no expensive monthly membership fees either. You can fit it into your day whenever it suits you best. Get your exercise in one long session or subdivide it into a series of shorter sessions throughout the course of the day. It’s your choice.
One piece of essential equipment for walking is a good comfortable pair of shoes. If your shoes give you blisters or are uncomfortable, then sticking to your walking exercise plan will be difficult. So be sure that you have a good fitting, comfortable pair. If you like, you could get some of the latest designs of fitness shoes which help to raise the amount of work that your lower body muscles perform whilst walking normally.
There are a variety of different makes available – Skechers Shape Ups, Reeboks Easy Tones, Fit flops exercise sandals and Masai Barefoot Technology are amongst the best known and most popular – but there are more brands appearing on the market all the time. They do have some slight differences, but the common thread running through the various designs seems to be a specially designed sole which raises the amount of work performed by the muscles in your legs and butt. This helps you to ramp up the effectiveness of your workout and allows you to get the maximum return from your walking routine.
The generally accepted target figure in order to achieve health and fitness benefits is 10,000 steps daily. Many people find that wearing a pedometer can be a useful motivational aid to help them add more steps into their day and get closer to the target figure. Pedometers are not expensive these days but, if you think that a pedometer would help you to stay motivated you should be certain to get a reasonably good quality model.
Recent research found that a large number of pedometers were inaccurate – some by as much as 50%. It seemed that inaccurate pedometers tended to overestimate the number of steps – meaning that someone who was walking for 5,000 paces daily might be under the false impression that they were reaching their 10,000 step target. The reason is due to the fact that the cheapest pedometers tend to use a hairspring technology which is calibrated in the factory during manufacture. These generally become less and less accurate as the pedometer ages – with an ever increasing tendency to overestimate the number of steps taken being in evidence.
Better models use coiled spring technology and dual accelerometer sensors which means that they are more accurate and have a longer lifespan and can be carried in your pocket or a bag rather than worn on your belt. An Omron pedometer typically has an accuracy of plus or minus 5%. Other quality brands include New Lifestyles, Taneka and Yamax.
In order to establish how accurate your pedometer is, there are two very simple tests which you can do. The first is to simply count 100 steps and then cross refer it to what your pedometer says. The second test method is to take a note of the reading on your pedometer just before you first sit down – at your desk at work perhaps – and then to check it again after being seated for thirty minutes or so. If your step count increases significantly as a result of your normal movements whilst seated then it will certainly artificially inflate your daily step count.
These days, most pedometers are digital. They generally have a memory and you can usually see your results for a week long period – which is handy if you wish to keep tabs on your progress. Some even allow you to load your results into your computer using a USB connection so that you can monitor your results over time. You can normally change the way in which your results are displayed as well. Select from the distance covered, the number of steps or the number of calories used up – whatever helps you to stay motivated.
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