To follow on from our recent article about walking mindfully what better way embrace Spring than with Walktober?

What is Walktober?

Walktober is an annual health awareness and fundraising event that challenges people to move every day in October.

How to make Walktober work for you?

Walking can be done at any pace and at any age. It re-energises you, gets your body moving, your blood pumping, and makes you happier to be alive.

We all have different levels of fitness and different walking histories but don’t let that stop you from embracing this challenge.

Check out the suggestions below to help you get on board with Walktober because there is no doubt you will reap benefits if you give it a go.

Walking experience	Suggestions
New to walking	Frequency is your goal! Do a walk each day for the entire month. Do not worry about how long you walk for – just do what you can (2 min, 5 min or 10 min walks)
Getting back on track with walking	Do daily walks. Build up you walking duration each day (if you need to). Break up walks if necessary (ie try three 10 min walks each day). Aim to reach 31 minute walks daily by the last week in October
Experienced walker	Challenge yourself to walk for 31 minutes every day in October!

What’s in it for you?

When you walk, your muscles are being exercised, this draws glucose out of the bloodstream for fuel, helping manage the levels of glucose in your blood.

This effect continues not just during exercise, but for 24 to 72 hours afterward.

For this reason, it is recommended people with diabetes exercise at least five days per week, if not every day.

This ensures that the muscles draw glucose from the bloodstream continuously.

If walking is not something you enjoy, change Walktober into something that suits your needs.

You could replace the walking with cycling, swimming, dancing or chair based resistance exercises.

Last year Charlie* challenged himself not with walking but with a hydrotherapy class – check out the results of his pre and post exercise blood glucose levels in the table.

*A little bit about Charlie… Charlie is a 72 year old male living with type 2 diabetes and taking medication. He joined a hydrotherapy exercise class and was doing 60 minute hydrotherapy exercises twice a week. At the time he was also having to manage lower back pain and arthritis in both knees.

If you need more support for some ideas contact us and speak with an Exercise Physiologist on 1300 136 588.