Tag Archive for 'Camminare'

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No walk, no health

In my opinion, the simple action of walking should become one of the main challenges of our near future. A sedentary lifestyle has certainly become the most widespread activity in our world dominated by machines and technology. We also know very well the damage caused by a sedentary lifestyle. Moving has become so important, as well as being not very often sufficiently practiced, so that smartwatches remind us of it imperatively every hour.

How much we walk has been showed by a research:

In USA, Americans take 5,117 steps a day, a distance of approximately 2.5 miles. That’s a significant shortfall compared to the averages in Western Australia (9,695), Switzerland (9,650), Switzerland (9,650) and Japan (7,168).

“It is interesting that these step counts are only about one-third of the values measured for men and women living in an Old Order Amish farming community in Ontario, Canada. Assuming that the labor-intensive farming lifestyle of the Amish reflects that of most North Americans in the mid-1800s, this suggests a marked decline in ambulatory activity over the last century and a half.”

Personally, I have an annual average of 11,988 steps a day, equal to 9,420km.

 

Walking, gender differences across adult life

Review of a study on the gender differences across adult life by T. Pollard and J. Wagnild

Walking is associated with better mental and physical health and reduced mortality and, when used for transport, with reduced air and noise pollution. In contrast to other forms of physical activity, walking has the advantage of being accessible to most people. For these reasons, promotion of walking has become more prominent in public health campaigns .

The aim of this systematic review is to assess the current evidence on gender differences in walking in high income countries. We hypothesised that there are gender differences in participation in walking for leisure, for transport, and in total walking. We also set out to examine whether gender differences change across the life-course.

Results

  • More women than men walk for leisure when all age groups are considered together, although the effect size is small.
  • At younger ages more women walk for leisure than men but that this gender difference diminishes progressively with age, with evidence that it reverses in the oldest age groups so that more older men than older women walk for leisure.
  • Walking for exercise found that more women walked than men, except in the oldest age group (60+), in which more men walked than women.
  • Data on walking for fun or pleasure found that more women walked for fun than men.
  • There is no evidence for a consistent gender difference in participation in walking for transport.
  • There was no evidence for a gender difference in the prevalence of walking for any purpose in studies including all ages from the USA. Data reported by age group suggest that at younger ages more women walk than men, but at older ages the gender difference is very small.
  • Walking for leisure is an activity that women can undertake with children and it is possible that child-care plays a role in the relatively high levels of walking for leisure in younger women.
  • Young men’s relatively high levels of participation in sports and exercise decline with age, as reported for the UK and the USA, and it is possible that men adopt walking for leisure as a replacement for more vigorous activities as they get older.
  • In the oldest age groups, the proportion of men walking for leisure declines, but the proportion of women walking for leisure declines more. This pattern may reflect differences in ability to walk in older age. A British study found that “mobility limitation” rises faster with age in women than in men, probably because of higher levels of morbidity in older women than in older men, including musculoskeletal problems.

Walking is a primary behavior

Walking is one of the primary human activity. Today it is possible to live sitting moving from the bed to a car/bus/train to a chair. Therefore a project that is intended to promote walking becomes more necessary than ever to promote the well-being of citizens.

There are several psychosocial aspects involved in the success of this idea; regarding the substance of the perception that citizens have of:

  1. how valuable and rewarding is to walk in the city,
  2. what motives the walk meets,
  3. how much the overall wellness come out strengthened.

These three aspects should come to constitute a single integrated model, allowing to easily switch to plan to walk (I want to) to the action (I am doing). Be aware of these three aspects and their interaction becomes, therefore, necessary for the success of the project.

Survey data have shown that people appreciate the walk into town if:

  1. they see others walking to work or as an expression of physical activity,
  2. there are green spaces, safe spaces and pleasing to the eye,
  3. the streets are safe,
  4. the accidents to pedestrians are rare,
  5. there are schools where you walk,
  6. the traffic is reduced.

In relation to individual motivations has been noted that people want to perform an activity that:

  1. reduces stress and improve mood,
  2. improves the relationship with their body,
  3. takes place outdoors, they can practice with others,
  4. respects their individual rhythms and is moderately intense,
  5. is easy and affordable.

The third aspect of this approach concerns the promotion of the welfare. This derives from the interaction between the two issues described. It refers to the criteria of walkability and motivation. When they interact positively the individuals show a higher level of personal satisfaction, providing a better sense of well-being.

To walk or run15 minutes every day improve the children life

We do so few things to promote the movement amog the children, that news like this one become immediately virals and demonstrate how it could be easy to do much more with only the good will.

“As son as the children at one primary school in Stirling hear the words “daily mile”, they down their pencils and head out of the classroom to start running laps around the school field.

For three-and-a-half years, all pupils at St Ninians primary have walked or run a mile each day. They do so at random times during the day, apparently happily, and despite the rise in childhood obesity across the UK, none of the children at the school are overweight.

The daily mile has done so much to improve these children’s fitness, behaviour and concentration in lessons that scores of nursery and primary schools across Britain are following suit and getting pupils to get up from their desks and take 15 minutes to walk or run round the school or local park.”

(The Guardian)

Ecomarathon: the running of our ancestors

If the long distance run is the movement privileged by the human being and it’s a remembering of the actions of our ancestors, the race in the midst of nature is the privileged place where to move. It’s a race that eliminates the obsession of many runners for the time at km, because it’s the nature to hinder this mindset. It can easily become a way to be totally involved in the landscape with its ups and downs and to do this trip of hours with a patient and relaxed style, also in the effort that certainly requires. It’s a path where the runners can alternate walking with running depending on the steepness of the climbs and descents that they have to face, It’s a running that brings us closer to what our ancestors have done for thousands of years, moving from one place to another in search of food. The eco-marathons as well as shorter distances are a lifestyle sport suitable for everyone, because all the people can participate, if they wish, in an ecological walk in the middle of a forest or in the meadows and the most trained can run the longer distances. I hope they have increasingly spread as it’s having the Chianti Ecomarathon, in Tuscany,  with competitive run of 42, 21 and 14 km, as well as the Ecowalking of 10 km, the tour of the wine cellars and 11 km of Nordic walking.

The first paraplegics to run the Rome Marathon using the exoskeleton

Carmine Consalvi and Nicoletta Tinti face a new sport challenge: are the first complete paraplegics to attend the Rome Marathon, using a wearable exoskeleton. Sunday, March 22, Carmine and Nicoletta will walk viale delle Terme di Caracalla, for about a kilometer, showing how the exoskeleton has revolutionized their lives. The initiative, sponsored by the Saint Lucia Foundation in Rome, aims to get to know this technology, which promises to change the daily lives of so many people today forced into a wheelchair.

20-minutes walk to avoid obesity risk

Lack of exercise is twice as likely to determine the obesity beginning and a daily break of 20-minute walk permits to avoid the premature death.

The effects of obesity and exercise have been studied on 334,161 men and women for 12 years period . Although the impact of exercise was greatest among people of a normal weight, even those with a high body mass index (BMI) levels saw a benefit. Lack of exercise was thought to have caused almost 700,000 deaths across Europe in 2008.

Study leader Prof Ulf Ekelund – Medical Research Council (MRC) epidemiology unit at Cambridge University, said: “This is a simple message: just a small amount of physical activity each day could have substantial health benefits for people who are physically inactive. Although we found that just 20 minutes would make a difference, we should really be looking to do more than this – physical activity has many proven health benefits and should be an important part of our daily life.”

Participants in the research, who had an average age of about 50, were recruited to the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer (Epic) study conducted across 10 European countries, including the UK. All had their height, weight and waist sizes measured and provided self-assessments of physical activity levels.

Just under a quarter (22.7%) were categorised as inactive, working in sedentary jobs without engaging in any recreational exercise.

The findings, which are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, say the greatest reductions in the risk of premature death were seen when comparing moderately active groups with those who were completely inactive.

Using the most recent available public data, the researchers calculated that 337,000 of the 9.2m deaths that occurred in Europe in 2008 could be attributed to obesity, but physical inactivity was thought to be responsible for almost double this number – 676,000 deaths.

Co-author Prof Nick Wareham, director of the MRC epidemiology unit, said: “Helping people to lose weight can be a real challenge and, whilst we should continue to aim at reducing population levels of obesity, public health interventions that encourage people to make small but achievable changes in physical activity can have significant health benefits and may be easier to achieve and maintain.”

June Davison, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “The results of this study are a clear reminder that being regularly physically active can reduce the risk of dying from coronary heart disease.

“The research suggests that just a modest increase in physical activity can have health benefits. Adults should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week, carrying it out in sessions of 10 minutes or more.

“Whether it’s going for a walk, taking a bike ride or using the stairs instead of the lift, keeping active every day will help reduce the risk of developing coronary heart disease.”

How our society prevents the movement motivation

Sport in italy

  1. The young of the city walking four times less than those living in the city more pedestrian oriented.
  2. More adults watch the news that amplify crime facts, the more they are intimidated and remain at home watching TV.
  3. Children who do not go to school on foot, lose one of the first moments of individual training and adventure.
  4. TV, computer, video games and internet limit the opportunities for movement already reduced by the car use .
  5. In town to walk becomes a symbol of inadequacy and of belonging to  the disadvantaged people.

The numbers of well-being

The numbers of well-being:

10,000 steps every day to do

90 minutes max of consecutive work

15 minutes of relaxation or meditation daily

8 hours to sleep every day

5 meals recommended to eat an average amount of 2000 kcal

5 minute break every 90 minutes working

2 liters of water to drink every day

3 km walking  consecutively every day

Caminando

Caminando, se aprende en la vida

Caminando, se sabe lo que es

Caminando, se cura la herida

Caminando, que deja el ayer

Caminando mirando una estrella

Caminando, oyendo una voz

Caminando, seguendo una huella

Caminando, que otro camina

Caminando, buscando a la vida

Caminando, buscando al amor

Caminando, curando la herida

Caminando, que deja il dolor

Ruben Blade