I have always loved taking walks where I live. For me taking walks gives me the opportunity to reflect on things that are going on in my life. Taking walks also gives me the opportunity to meet new people since I am social and love talking to people I have never met.

I would like to start a walking club and have been learning about walking clubs. Walking as a group has many benefits. Walking as a group can help lower blood pressure, reduce heart disease and lose weight. People who walk together are more likely to stick together as a group and keep walking than if you walk alone.

When you walk as a group, you are more likely to be motivated to lose weight. As a group you can walk faster and further than if you walk alone. Before starting a walking club, you need to find people who also want to walk with you.

You can find people for your walking group on social media like Facebook. You can also find people for your walking club at church, at work or any clubs that you might be part of.

Once you start a walking club, you should choose a time that works for everyone to walk together. It can be in the morning or in the afternoon.

Goal setting is important in order to be a successful walking group. You should have a goal as to how far you will walk and how long the group wants to walk.

After getting together with your walking group, you should plan on an area that you will walk in. If you are in a neighborhood you can start there. If you are in a city, you can walk around the city you are in and check out all the different stores during your walk.

There will be some members of your walking group that will be faster walkers than other members. You should plan on walking together as a group. If some of the members of the group are faster, they can turn around and come to those who walk slower.

It should be fun walking as a group and not boring. If you don’t know everyone in the group, each person in the group can introduce themselves. As a group you can talk about thing that interests each member of the group so that so that the group will get to know each person better.

As part of a walking group, the group should choose leaders who share in the responsibilities of the group. You can have a leader who is responsible for reminding members of weekly walks. Another leader could be responsible for bringing healthy snacks and drinks for the walk.

Each member of the walking group should be able to have contact with each other. You should know the phone number and email addresses of each member. It is also good to know emergency contact numbers in case something serious happens to a member of the group. The leaders of the group should be aware of any health problems that a member of the group might have in case a health emergency arises.

Another walking club you can take part in is a school walking club if a school in your area does not have a walking club. The benefit to starting a school walking club is that you will be involving students who are not getting the exercise that they need. Students who don’t get the exercise that they need can develop health problems later in life like obesity and heart disease.

To start a school walking club, you should choose a creative name for the club that will generate interest and encourage students to join the club. A school walking club should consist of teachers who will supervise the club. Once your school walking club has been established, you should meet together and set up a time to walk each week. To  let students know about the walking club, you can advertise in the school newsletter/school newspaper
as well as the school website.

Parents of students who want to take part in the walking club should fill out a permission slip explaining what the student needs for the walking club. Parents should also be told that they can also take part in the walking club if they desire.

Now that your school walking club has been organized, you can choose to walk around the school property or you can choose to walk around the neighborhoods in the area.

To make the walking club exciting, you can make some small goals to accomplish. Once you have accomplished a small goal, you can set an even bigger goal like walking from the east coast to the west coast. Now the group will not be literally walking from the east coast to the west coast. As the group meets every week and takes walks, the miles will add up until eventually they will have walked the equivalent from the east to the west coast.

Taking walks is not the only thing students need in order to be healthy. You should have drinks and snacks for the students that are healthy.

Even though walking is an easy thing to do and can be done by everyone, it is a good idea for those who will either be walking by themselves or in a group to do some stretches in order to prevent being injured on your walk.

Walking alone or in a group can happen every week of the year. Of course the ideal time to walk is when the weather is nice which is in the spring, summer and fall. Even though it will be harder, you can still take walks in the winter. If you have a mall where you live, you can go to the mall and walk around inside the mall before it opens for business.

As you can see, there are many benefits to walking alone or in a group. Taking walks allows you to meet new people and make new friends that you otherwise would not have met. If you have kept putting off walking alone or in a group, it will be harder to start walking. Now is the time to get out of  your comfort zone and start walking.