Every weekday morning, Laura De Martino wakes up early to go for a walk with her friends on St. Simons Island, Ga.
"Anne Marie Stirewalt, Gay Barron and I leave our houses at 6:15 each weekday morning. We walk to the Coast Guard Station, then down the beach as far as we can," she said.
"If we must get off, we still walk down to and through the Village, then back down Mallery, down Leake (streets) and back into the back side of Sandcastle (subdivision). It takes us an hour and a half and we figure it's about five miles."
De Martino loves the exercise but she also enjoys the company.
"Not only is it good for us health-wise to move ourselves, but we have the best time with each other. We love watching the world wake up. Not only that, we've made 'walking' friends. We see Sarah gathering her cans and Chris walking toward us. We've come to know Barb and Jim, new friends from Florida," she said.
During their walks, De Martino and her group are doing more than just spending time with friends.
Sean McClintock, personal trainer manager at Bailey's Gym in Brunswick, says that walking has many benefits.
"Walking is a great way to condition the body and makes everyday living that much easier. Walking or jogging strengthens your legs and back muscles, improves the strength of your bones, allows you to become more flexible and, most importantly, it strengthens your heart," he said.
"Not to mention getting out and walking will give you a great sense of accomplishment, just because you know you have done something great for yourself."But even something as seemingly simple as walking -- putting one foot in front of the other -- has its complexities when it comes to technique and health benefits: Should you take a longer, slower walk or a faster, brisker walk to get the best results?Any exercise is beneficial, but new research finds that for people in cardiac rehabilitation who are overweight, longer but slower walks are better for losing weight and improving heart health than shorter, brisker walks. Frequent long, slow walks -- 45 minutes to 60 minutes a day at a moderate pace, five to six days a week, like the routine De Martino and her friends have established -- were found to burn more calories, improve cardiac function, reduce weight and body fat.Researchers found that walking can burn more calories than biking or swimming, because walkers support their total body weight by themselves, rather than having a bike or water support their weight. People have to bike or swim a lot more to gain the same calorie-burning effect as walking, said Dr. Philip Ades, a professor of medicine and director of cardiac rehabilitation and prevention at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the study's lead researcher.
The study involved 74 overweight people with coronary heart disease, who were enrolled in a cardiac rehabilitation program. They were randomly assigned to an exercise regimen designed to burn 3,000 to 3,500 calories a week or to a standard rehab exercise program designed to burn 700 to 800 calories a week.The high-calorie expenditure program was based on exercise that was not more intensive than standard rehabilitation but was done more often (five to seven times a week, rather than three) and longer (45 minutes to 60 minutes a session, rather than 25 to 40), according to the study. Exercise for the standard rehabilitation group included a combination of walking and biking or rowing.After five months, people in the high-calorie-burning group -- those taking the longer, slower, more frequent walks -- had greater improvement in insulin sensitivity, cholesterol, blood pressure and cardio and respiratory fitness than did people in the standard exercise group, the researchers found. In addition, the long, slow walkers lost an average of 18 pounds, compared with eight pounds among those in the standard rehabilitation group, and they lost more body fat (13 pounds versus six) and inches from their waistlines (2.7 versus two inches) than the others.
A year after the study ended, people in the high-calorie-burning group had regained an average of 2.9 pounds and those in the standard treatment group had regained about two pounds. Weight and body fat remained lower in both groups than it had been when they started.The bottom line is, however heart patients lose weight is good and will help reduce their risk. This study underscores the importance of exercise in losing weight. Walking daily, walking far, really made a big difference in reducing cardiac risk.
