Before walking for fitness with a pedometer, stretch your muscles to warm them up.

Walking for fitness, health and exercise is one of the best and easiest ways to get back into shape, strengthen your immune system (helping you to fight disease). Walking is also helpful to lower blood pressure, which keeps your blood pumping efficiently and increases metabolism. If you have slightly elevated LDL levels walking can help keep cholesterol in control too.

Not just for your inner body as well. Walk with a pedometer on a regular schedule and you’ll find your muscles strengthening while you lose weight.

Wondering how to get started? Although every person reading this will be at a different level of fitness nearly everyone should wear a pedometer for at least a week, counting their steps per day, and then setting goals for following weeks at an increase of 10-20%.

If you begin to take walks at a normal pace you can gradually step into a brisker pace each week, lengthen the time of your walks or add more aerobically challenging activities to your exercise time. No matter what level you are at, you should always warm up with a few stretches before you begin and cool down by walking slowly at the end of your workout.

All new exercise program should be worked into. For example if you are intending to eventually strength train a walking fitness program will bring you to the level required to build up enough muscle tone for your next program.

Walking for fitness programs often run on a seven day workout plan. In such a program you would use a diary, journal or log of activity to record progress and goals. Your primary goal would be to start walking each day. Do so for ten consecutive minutes at a minimum. Eventually you would work yourself up to 20 minutes per day.

A great way to stay motivated is to start or join a team of other pedometer walkers. Being part of a team will inspire you to stay focused, engaged and motivated. If you all being as new walking for fitness participants you can progress at the same rate (given similar ages and body types).

To push yourself or your team too early in your fitness program is to invite failure as a result of over-exertion. Overexertion is the most common reason people eventually give up on walking for fitness.

When your group is ready – or when you are ready as an individual – change your walking time to faster paced walks. These brisk walks shrink your risk of heart attack or a stroke, reduce the risks of diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and more.