A practical guide to walking to improve health and well being with the help of Britain's biggest walking charity.
The Ramblers' Association is grateful to the Foundation for Sport and the Arts for financial support in the production of this booklet.
Cymraeg
This publication is available in several different forms.
- Website version
Presented as a series of printer-friendly web pages. Start reading further down the page. - PDF version
Everything in a single file that can be viewed or printed out using Adobe Acrobat Reader in a similar layout to the printed version, though optimised for web use and home printing. Download now (994kB). - 10-week walking programme PDF
Download and printout just the 10-week plan in an easy-to-read graphic format using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download now (35 kB). - Cymerwch30 - Tywysydd ymarferol i gerdded er mwyn gwella eich iechyd corfforol a meddyliol.
Welsh version - Take30 poster
with the 10-week walking programme: order here!
About Take30
Photo: Tony Carney
Walking is the most natural and simpleform of movement, and an excellent allround mode of exercise. Yet as a nation we are walking less and less. Walking can help you to:
- Improve your general health
- Get fit and stay fit
- Control your weight
- Live longer!
Walking helps protect the body from many illnesses and conditions: heart disease and stroke, high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, obesity, depression, some types of diabetes and colon cancer.
Health experts agree that 30 minutes brisk walking on most days of the week is sufficient to improve fitness. That might seem a lot at first but walking can be incorporated into your everyday life more easily than any other activity.
You don’t need any special gear and you can do it wherever you are. It raises your energy levels, works off calories and doesn’t cost a bean!
In these pages you will find a 10-week programme to follow. It can help people who feel they are not active enough to change their day to day habits through the simple activity of walking more.
For most people, walking is a safe and effective form of exercise. However, if you have any concerns or are at all worried about your health, discuss this with your doctor before starting the plan.
If your main aim is to lose weight, you need to use more calories through physical activity than you take in as food. This means doing as much as possible: short walks, longer walks, climbing stairs – every bit of physical activity counts toward the total number of calories burned off.
If your main aim is to increase your fitness it is important to increase the intensity of your exercise. This means following the parts of the plan which emphasise brisk walking. Aim to walk more briskly until you’re feeling a little warmer and your heart is beating slightly faster. Or try to have a brisk session in every walk.
Changing lifelong habits requires determination and courage. We can make it much easier for the next generation by introducing them to walking early in life. This booklet gives ideas for how to make walking part of life for everybody.
Pages in Take30
See also
First steps: more help and advice to get you started walking.
Take30 is a Ramblers promoting walking project. Read more about promoting walking work in Great Britain.
