2017 Volume 16 Issue 1 Pages 1-7
We investigated health promotion effects of walking exercise on a sandy beach and in a forest for 40 days for healthy adults aged 53-69 years. At first, 10 subjects walked sandy beach, forest road, and concrete road (control), each 300-m long, and calorie consumptions were measured to determine the characteristics of each walking course. In walking exercise, 18 subjects walked about 2.3-km course, which consisted of a sandy beach and a forest road, for 30 minutes per a day. Before and after the walking exercise for 40 days, various physiological parameters were measured. Calorie consumption in the 300-m walk was significantly higher for sandy beach (18.9 ± 3.6 kcal) and forest road (19.5 ± 4.0 kcal) than concrete road (15.3 ± 3.3 kcal). Calorie consumption in a walking exercise was about 120 kcal. After the 40-days exercise, the following significant changes were found: decrease in body fat ratio, restoration of resting systolic blood pressure to a safe range, increase in muscle strength of plantar flexor and knee extensor, and improvement of equilibrium function and aerobic work capacity. These results evidenced health promotion effects of walking exercise on a sandy beach and in a forest.
