This week I started a new project. I am now a Walking
Instructor and have partnered up with the company Humana by reaching out to the
inactive and promoting better health by starting a walking program.
What has attracted me to this opportunity is that Humana
offers this to everybody, member of their company or not. The participants
receive really nice step counters that can be uploaded to a computer program
and allows tracking of walking activities as well as other forms of exercise.
I am a great proponent of walking as exercise. It is one
of my personal favorites, and I cannot think of many things I’d rather do than
go for a walk with my dog.
Having the opportunity to reach out to people who would
not contact a personal trainer and may not be members of a health club is a
unique opportunity to interact with the great majority of inactive people.
Walking is something everybody can (and usually has to)
do, and there are studies after studies confirming the benefits of it. But is
has bedeviled the fitness industry for long on how to reach the inactive. You
can lasso them and make them do things, no matter how beneficial it may be. And
even with this program, they still have to take a bit of initiative and go to
Humana and pick up a step counter.
On the day of the program launch, a fair number of people
showed up and listened to me as I talked … and talked … and talked ….. I must
have said something right because many of them showed up for the first day of
the actual walking program and completed the first round of walks with me.
In order to keep things a little more interesting, I add
some exercises to the walk which may be balance and flexibility, agility and
interval training. I am often called ‘posture police’ by my clients, and I
consider this a batch of honor as I pontificate about the importance of good
posture as much as I can. And now I have another group of unsuspecting victims
with my groups of walkers.
