pedometers

It's a great way to shed weight or at least keep from gaining additional pounds--buy a pedometer and track your daily steps. The target number you hear most often is a daunting 10,000 steps a day. Ten thousand steps is almost five miles. That's pretty challenging if you have a hectic schedule, but it's worth it, right?

Well, unfortunately, a recent pedometer study says it may take just a bit more than that.

Why clip a pedometer on your belt when you can stick it on your shoe?

"SHPedometer accuratly [sic] counts X-treme foot action. One SHPed on each shoe will prove accuracy for each foot."

A pedometer is a portable step counter. Clip it onto your belt and you can count how many steps you've made. Pedometers are excellent little gadgets that measure your progress in both planned and incidental exercise sessions.

Cheap pedometers are easy to come by - some are even given away for free. Unfortunately it seems that many pedometers are inaccurate.

Fitness trends come and go. Spinning, Cardio Striptease, Pilates, Vibration Machines - there are loads of different exercise routines other there. Any kind of exercise is good - anything that you can enjoy that gets your body moving is a good thing. If all the options and trends are too much - then it's time to fall back on the most accessible exercise - walking.

Los Angeles Times (subscription required): "The 10,000 steps concept is a Japanese import, created by a researcher who helped to promote pedometer-measured walking into a Japanese national movement.

"Ten-thousand is a good number but there's nothing magical in it," said Jim Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

"The best scientific evidence has demonstrated that a daily 30-minute brisk walk is important for health, not whether the step count reaches 10,000," Le Masurier wrote in the January-February issue of the American College of Sports Medicine's Health and Fitness Journal. "