| Walk Springfield | National Walking Day in Springfield | National Walking Day |
| Walk Springfield, a local initiative, has created 20 newly-designated walking paths with tools to help the public identify details of each path using their smartphone. Path details will be unveiled at the community event, Wednesday, April 3. The 30 special walking paths chosen by community partners are designed to make physical activy more convenient and accessible, while encourage the public to embrace a healthy lifestyle. View List & Map of Walking Paths or go directly to StartWalkingNow.org | Plan to join us Wednesday, April 2, 2014, National Walking Day, at noon. The 2013 kick-off event included a walk on one of the new Walk springfield Walking Paths, now known as Jordan Valley Park & Greenway. We met at the Jordan Valley Maintenance Oiffce, 625 E. Trafficway in Springfield. Each special path will be marked with new signage. | National Walking Day encourages the public to embrace a healthier lifestyle through walking, which has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity. Adults nationwide are encouraged to make the pledge to start walking and become heart-healthy. Just 30 minutes of physical activity each day can improve heart-health. |
| Why physical activity? | Fit-Friendly Worksites | Workplace Wellness |
| Taking just 10 minutes 3X a day to walk will help individuals live longer. In fact, studies show that just one hour of vigorous exercise will increase life expectancy by two hours. Find a variety of valuable resources online at startwalkingnow.org. Physical inactivity doubles the risk of heart diesase, which kills 1 in 3 people in the U.S. each year. | The American Heart Association works with employers and the 135 million Americans in the workplace to create a culture of walking before, during or after work. Employers are offered resouces to implement a walking program in the workplace and track employees' progress. Fif-Friendly Workplace program recognizes companies for meeting criteria for employee fitness. More than 1,000 U.S. companies have been recognized for demonstrating their commitment to promoting exercise and good nutrition in the workplace. View Springfield's Fit-Friendly Worksites 2013 | Encourage employees to walk briskly for just 30 minutes a day can help lower chronic disease risk factors such as high blood pressure. Educating individuals about basic cardiovascular disease prevention and developing health education programs that focus on lifestyle behavior change will increase a company's bottom line. The estimated cost of obesity and overweight-related health conditions to American companies is $225.8 billion per year in productivity loss. |
Community partners involved in this new walking path partnership include:
