Walking to stay fit

In an attempt to keep fit in these demanding routines more and more people are walking up to the need for a morning or evening walk. This fact came to the light when the Yuva Sambad team conducted a survey among 400 morning and evening walkers. Out of those surveyed, 40 percent walk for more than 2-3 km, 27 percent walk for less than 3 km while 29 percent walk for less than 1 km.

Jogging is the most prevalent activity among morning walkers. More than 50 percent people jog, while 27 percent settle down for normal walking, 9 percent loved standing and 14 percent walked briskly during the morning.

Going all alone for a walk is very boring, as revealed by 53 percent people who go along with a companion, 24 percent people go out with their family, while 43 percent enjoyed the company of friends and 33 percent went along with their neighbours.

In reply to a question if friends or companion failed to turn up for a morning walk, what would they do, 15 percent said they would not go out in that case, 25 percent said they would go alone, 25 percent said they will try to achieve their aim of walking in some other way, 32 opined that they would return early if their companion fail to turn up.

Regarding the place where they go for a walk, 31 percent said they found parks far from their houses very suitable. While 29 percent people preferred walking on open and wide roads, 25 percent said that they loved strolling in parks near their homes. Whereas 15 percent prefer jogging in big grounds 14 percent of them go to parks by a vehicle.

On being asked as to why they go for walks, 40 percent of them said walking is the best exercise. The reasons they go walking in parks were numerous; 26 percent felt that one gets lots of fresh air while walking in parks, 34 percent said that it made their bodies and minds healthy.

Exercise is another way of keeping fit and fine. Therefore 79 percent of the morning walkers prefer exercising, 63 percent start their routine by running, 20 percent prefer aerobics while 10 percent go in for yoga. Vipassna, another form of fitness exercise, was done by 7 percent of the people.

Morning and evening walkers were annoyed by the deteriorating conditions of the parks; 33 percent said that the parks were always dirty while 42 percent found the parks dirty sometimes, 25 percent of them said that they had no complaints regarding the cleanliness of the parks.

 The people are conscious of their surroundings. They were not satisfied with the greenery in and around the parks; 22 percent said that the parks are not watered properly and they lacked shady trees said 25 percent of the people. The grass in the parks was scanty and the green and brown patches looked ugly to 20 percent of the people. The parks lacked greenery said 17 percent of them, while to 16 percent of the walkers the parks looked more like a plain ground as there was hardly any grass in them.