Walk this way: Insight into a healthy exercise regimen: SouthFlorida.com

You've resolved to get healthier this year, maybe even drop a few pounds. Maybe it is the first time you've promised yourself to take charge of your health; or maybe it is the tenth.

What now?
You don't have to run a marathon, buy expensive exercise equipment, sign up at a gym or hire a personal trainer named Helga in order to get fit. Thirty minutes of brisk walking a day is a step in the right direction toward improved heart health, according to a University of Florida study published recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

University of Florida researchers found that study participants who were prescribed an exercise regimen of walking for 30 minutes five or more days a week showed significant long-term improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness.

A half hour of moderate-intensity walking most days of the week has been associated with significant health benefits and is in line with recommendations from the American Heart Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Surgeon General.

The fact that walking is good for your health is no big discovery; the interesting part of the UF research was the finding that programs that begin with a modest, realistic prescription for exercise appear to have a much greater chance of long-term success. The UF study focused specifically on people�s adherence to exercise regimens.

"I was most surprised by how much variability there was in how closely the participants followed their exercise prescriptions," says the paper's lead author Glen Duncan, Ph.D. Further research should involve developing approaches to encourage people to exercise, he said. "Most American adults aren't sufficiently active on a regular basis, and 26 percent are not active at all."

"We really need to get a handle on how we can engage adults and children in physical activity so that they are active on a regular basis," Duncan says. "There are many reasons why people are not active. This is unfortunate because we know that exercise works very well in terms of improving health, but it works only insomuch as people actually do the exercise."