How Using A Pedometer Might Help To Keep You Motivated
Walking is a great exercise for getting in shape, losing weight and achieving a whole host of major health benefits. 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. Do it in one session or break it into a number of shorter sessions between other activities. It’s completely up to you.
One item of essential walking equipment is a comfortable pair of shoes or boots. 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 want to, you could get some of the latest designs of fitness footwear which help to increase the amount of work that your lower body muscles perform during normal activity.
There are a wide range 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 new brands are appearing on the market all the time. They do have some slight variances, but the common aspect seems to be a specially designed sole which boosts the amount of work done by your leg and butt muscles. This increases the effectiveness of your workout and helps you to get the maximum return from your walking schedule.
Health professionals suggest that, in order to achieve the health benefits, we should be aiming to take 10,000 steps daily. Many walkers find that using a pedometer can be a handy motivational tool to help them add more steps into their day and work up 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%. In general, the tendency was for inaccurate pedometers to overestimate the number of steps taken – so someone who was doing 5,000 steps a day might think that they were achieving 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 become ever less accurate as the pedometer ages – with a growing tendency to overestimate the number of steps as the spring weakens being the outcome.
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 Yamax, Taneka and New Lifestyles.
If you want to check the accuracy of your pedometer there are two simple but effective tests that you can perform. The first is to simply count out 100 steps and compare it with what your pedometer says. The second is to note the reading on your pedometer when you first sit down – at your desk at work for example – and then to check it again after being seated for half an hour. If it rises significantly due to your normal movements whilst seated then it will overestimate your step count.
Most pedometers are digital these days of course. They usually have some on-board memory memory and you can typically see 7 days worth of results – which is good if you want to track your progress. A lot of them even let you download load your results into your computer via a USB connection so that you can keep track of your results over time. You can normally change the way in which your results are displayed as well. Choose from the number of steps, the distance covered or the number of calories burned – whichever helps you to keep motivated.
Tags: Exercise, fitness, health, pedometer, Weight Loss