Things changed for the better, however, after an Irish environmental agency and the Ulster Way Advisory Committee teamted up to relaunch a slightly shorter, 625-mile version of the trail.

Taking in the Giant’s Causeway, Cavehill, the Cliffs of Magho and the Sperrins among other highlights, the new route has been designed with practicality in mind. The new route is divided up into what promoters call “quality section,” which are comprised of off-road stretches, and link sections, which are mainly along roads (some of which are fairly busy).

While some people will want to hike the entire route, it’s design allows for people to use public transport to skip the link sections. If you do walk to Ulster Way (or visit Ireland in general), be prepared for sudden changes in the weather. Carry spare clothing. Boots are best. If you walk alone leave word of your route and expected time of return.

Join now to promote better health through walking.  It’s more than a program. It’s a movement.  Heart disease is this country’s No.1 killer. By walking for as little as 30 minutes each day you can reduce your risk. That’s what the Start! Movement is all about.  Get walking – start taking a more active role in your health!

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The British Journal of Cancer study combined results from research covering many kinds of physical activity, including manual labour, jogging, working out at the gym and brisk walking.

Those who took regular exercise cut their risk of colon cancer by 24 per cent. The benefit was the same for men and women.

This may seem like a significant time commitment. However, there are many ways you can accumulate walking steps or minutes throughout the day. This makes it easier to get the mileage in, without “cramming” it into longer walks. This is just one more reason why walking is such a great option for people who are struggling to find time to exercise.

The key is to wear your walking shoes as much as possible throughout the day, so you’re ready to go at a moment’s notice.Carve out time to walk to and from work, go for a walk at lunch and plan on taking an extra long walk one day out of every weekend.

The pace at which you walk is also important. Aim for a brisk walk, like the speed you would use if you were late for an appointment. Another way to pick up the pace of your walk is to speed up periodically for 30-second intervals.  Cue your feet to pick up the pace by swinging your arms a bit faster.

Plant your heel and roll through your foot pushing off the ball of your foot as you accelerate. Keep the upper body tall and stay light on your feet as you push to maintain an accelerated pace.

Repeat these short speed intervals several times during your walk. The added intensity will increase the calories burned and the workload on your heart and lungs enough to accrue even more fitness benefits than during a more moderately paced effort.

I tried to climb the mountain today. As I inched my way up the path, I felt out of breath and had to turn back.

I tried to climb the mountain today. But, It was so hot outside, I thought I had better stay in my nice air-conditioned house and rest up for tomorrow’s attempt.

I tried to climb the mountain today. On my journey, darkness started to fall and I was full of fear, so I had to return to a safe place.

I was ready to climb the mountain today. But I had so may other things to do, so instead of climbing the mountain I took care of the much more important tasks; I washed my car, mowed the grass and watched the big game. Today the mountain will have to wait.

I was going to climb the mountain today. But as I stared at the mountain in all it’s majestic beauty, I knew I had no chance of making it to the top, so I figured why even begin trying.

I had forgotten about climbing the mountain today, until an old friend came by and asked what I was up to lately. I told him about all my plans to climb that mountain someday. I went on and on about how I was going to accomplish the task.

He stopped me and said, “I just got back from climbing that mountain. for the longest time I told myself I was going to try to climb it but never made any progress.”

“I almost let the dream of making it to the top die. I came up with every excuse of why I could not make it up the mountain, but never once did I give myself a reason why I could. One day as I stared at the mountain and pondered, I realized that if I didn’t make an attempt at this dream all my dreams would eventually die.”

” The next morning, I started my climb. It was not easy, and at times I wanted to quit. But no matter what I faced, I placed one foot in front of the other, keeping a steady pace. When the wind tried to blow me over the edge, I kept walking. When the voices inside my head screamed, stop! I focused on my goal, never letting it out of sight. I kept moving forward. I could not quit because I knew I had come too far to stop now. Time and time again, I reassured myself that I was going to finish this journey. I struggled mightily to make it to the top, but I CLIMBED THE MOUNTAIN.”

“I have to be going,” my friend said. “Tomorrow is a new day to accomplish more dreams. By the way what are you going to do tomorrow?”

I looked at him, with intensity and confidence in my eyes, and said, “I HAVE A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB.”Author unknown

Keep at Your Walk

The Lord has given to every man his walk. It is his business to walk it and the devil’s business to hinder him if he can. So surely as God has given you a walk to walk, the devil will try to hinder you. He may present other things more promising. He may allure you with vending machines (or other worldly prospects). He may assault you with slander, torment you with false accusations, set you to work defending your character, employ pious persons to lie about you, editors to assail you, and excellent men to slander you. You may have Pilate and Herod, Annas and Caiaphas all combined against you, and Judas standing by ready to sell you for thirty pieces of silver; and you may wonder why all those things come upon you. Can you not see that hte whole thing is brought about through the craft of the devil to draw you off from your walk with God and hinder your obedience to Him?

Keep walking your walk. Do not flinch because the lion roars; do not stop to stone the devil’s dogs; do not fool away your time chasing the devil’s rabbits. Walk your walk. Let liars lie, let sectarians quarrel, let corporations resolve, let editors publish, let the devil do his worst; but see to it that nothing hinders you from walking the walk that God has given you.

He has not sent you to make money. He has not commanded you to get rich. He has never bidden you to defend your character. He has not set you at work to contradict falsehood which Satan and his servants may start to peddle. If you do these things, you will do nothing else; you will be be walking your own walk and not the Lord’s.

Keep walking your walk. Let your AIM be as steady as a star. Let the world brawl and bubble. You may be assaulted, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded and rejected; you may be abused by foes, forsaken by friends, and despised and rejected of men, but see to it with steadfast determination , with unfaltering zeal, that you pursue the great purpose of your life and object of your being, until at last you can say ‘I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.’ Keep walking your walk–with God!

The results, which were published in The American Journal of Public Health, showed that the more time participants spent watching TV, the less likely they were to walk 10,000 steps five days a week (as recommended by the President’s Council for Physical Fitness and Sports).

The participants, many of whom were overweight, reported watching from zero to 14.5 hours of television a day, with an average of about four hours. This would be about right according to the national average, which is four hours per day. (Watching TV is now the most time-consuming activity in the United States, ranking second only to work and sleep).

Dr. Bennett, who headed the study, found that participants walked 144 steps less per day for every hour of TV watched. In other words, individuals who watched 10 hours of TV per day walked an average of 1440 steps less than those who watched no TV.

Of course, this problem could be alleviated by putting the treadmill in front of the TV. If you walked four miles on the treadmill in just one hour, you would have 8000 steps in right there!

While watching TV has been linked to excess body weight among children and adults, walking promotes weight loss. Walking doesn’t have to be time-consuming. There are many ways to fit a few extra steps into your daily routine. For example, you could:

• Take the stairs as often as possible, at home, at work and in stores.
• Walk to do shopping or other errands.
• Park several blocks from your destination and walk the rest of the way.
• Park at the rear of a well-lit shopping center parking lot or at the opposite end of the mall from where you need to shop.
• Walk your dog, or
• Walk with your child.

Action is a law of our being. Every organ of the body has its appointed work, upon the performance of which its development and strength depend. The normal action of all the organs gives strength and vigor, while the tendency of disuse is toward decay and death. Bind up an arm, even for a few weeks, then free it from its bands, and you will see that

It is weaker than the one you have been using moderately during the same time. Inactivity produces the same effect upon the whole muscular system.

Inactivity is a fruitful cause of disease. Exercise quickens and equalizes the circulation of the blood, but in idleness the blood does not circulate freely, and the changes in it, so necessary to life and health, do not take place. The skin, too, becomes inactive. Impurities are not expelled as they would be if the circulation had been quickened by vigorous exercise, the skin kept in a healthy condition, and the lungs fed with plenty of pure, fresh air. This state of the system throws a double burden on the excretory organs, and disease is the result.

Invalids should not be encouraged in inactivity. When there has been serious overtaxation in any direction, entire rest for a time will sometimes ward off serious illness; but in the case of confirmed invalids, it is seldom necessary to suspend all activity.

Those who have broken down from mental labor should have rest from wearing thought; but they should not be led to believe that it is dangerous to use their mental powers at all. Many are inclined to regard their condition as worse than it really is. This state of mind is unfavorable to recovery, and should not be encouraged.

Ministers, teachers, students, and other brain workers often suffer from illness as the result of severe mental taxation, unrelieved by physical exercise. What these persons need is a more active life. Strictly temperate habits, combined with proper exercise, would ensure both mental and physical vigor, and would give power of endurance to all brain workers.

Those who have overtaxed their physical powers should not be encouraged to forgo manual labor entirely. But labor, to be of the greatest advantage, should be systematic and agreeable. Outdoor exercise is the best; it should be so planned as to strengthen by use the organs that have become weakened; and the heart should be in it; the labor of the hands should never degenerate into mere drudgery.

When invalids havenothing to occupy their time and attention, their thoughts become centered upon themselves, and they grow morbid and irritable. Many times they dwell upon their bad feelings until they think themselves much worse than they really are and wholly unable to do anything.

In all these cases well-directed physical exercise would prove an effective remedial agent. In some cases it is indispensable to the recovery of health. The will goes with the labor of the hands; and what these invalids need is to have the will aroused. When the will is dormant, the imagination becomes abnormal, and it is impossible to resist disease.

Inactivity is the greatest curse that could come upon most invalids. Light employment in useful labor, while it does not tax mind or body, has a happy influence upon both. It strengthens the muscles, improves the circulation, and gives the invalid the satisfaction of knowing that he is not wholly useless in this busy world. He may be able to do but little at first, but he will soon find his strength increasing, and the amount of work done can be increased accordingly.

Exercise aids the dyspeptic by giving the digestive organs a healthy tone. To engage in severe study or violent physical exercise immediately after eating, hinders the work of digestion; but a short walk after a meal, with the head erect and the shoulders back, is a great benefit.

Notwithstanding all that is said and written concerning its importance, there are still many who neglect physical exercise. Some grow corpulent because the system is clogged; others become thin and feeble because their vital powers are exhausted in disposing of an excess of food. The liver is burdened in its effort to cleanse the blood of impurities, and illness is the result.

Those whose habits are sedentary should, when the weather will permit, exercise in the open air every day, summer or winter. Walking is preferable to riding or driving, for it brings more of the muscles into exercise. The lungs are forced into healthy action, since it is impossible to walk briskly without inflating them.

Such exercise would in many cases be better for the health than medicine. Physician often advise their patients to take an ocean voyage, to go to some mineral spring, or to visit different places for change of climate, when in most cases if they would eat temperately, and take cheerful, healthful exercise, they would recover health and would save time and money.

Excerpted from the book Ministry of Healing by Ellen G. White

Shortly after that article was published, a Finnish ski equipment manufacturer (Excel) picked up on the idea and launched a line of specially designed fitness or Nordic Walking poles. Exel’s wrist straps were a breakthrough in Nordic Walking technique, which Exel marketed through its newly launched International Nordic Walking Association (INWA).

Through the INWA, Exel offered a Nordic Walking training program. INWA instructors taught people how to Nordic Walk, and these people purchased Nordic Walking poles. Exel’s marketing strategy was immensely successful, which is why Exel can take much of the credit for the worldwide success of Nordic Walking today.
Tom Rutlands’ line of fitness walking poles, marketed under the Exerstrider brand name, did not include wrist straps. Although some debate exists about who first developed the concept of fitness or Nordic Walking, the correct answer is that Rutlin was on the right track (minus wrist straps), but Exel developed the sport and took it to new heights through a combination of their breakthrough wrist strap development and savvy marketing strategies.