La Verne, Stride to a Healthier Year with KP’s ‘Every Body Walk’ App from Kaiser Permanente

Three La Verne walkers put in their paces at last year's La Verne Heights walkathon.

Make 2012 a healthy year with the Every Body Walk! mobile application that Kaiser Permanente helped launch last month. The app is a fun, interactive tool to create and maintain a daily walking routine. It’s an easy way to get active, stay healthy and burn calories during the holidays.

Simply download this free app from the Apple Store or the Android Market. The Every Body Walk! app is accessible to everybody, and complements a robust walking hub — powered by Kaiser Permanente — www.everybodywalk.org. The app is a perfect holiday companion — it tracks detailed walking stats.

“The Every Body Walk! mobile app makes it easy to take steps toward a healthier lifestyle. Whether you’re already a walker or want to start walking, the app is a great tool you’ll want to use,” said Bob Sallis, MD, family physician at Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

What makes this app a total breakthrough? The Every Body Walk! mobile app allows users to monitor three important workout elements: time walked, distance covered and calories burned. Using GPS to establish the user’s location, walking paths are identified from a database of thousands of maps covering the United States at www.everybodywalk.org. There’s also an option to create custom walking routes using MapQuest. Whatever the course, by walking 30 minutes during a day with the Every Body Walk! mobile app, users earn a motivating badge for progressing toward the goal of walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week.

Walking routes can be saved in the app to create a personal walking history. The app is fully integrated with social-media platforms, so sharing messages about walks is possible via Facebook and MeetUp. The app also serves as a distribution channel for motivational Every Body Walk! videos.

The app is an interactive addition to Every Body Walk!, an online, public awareness campaign aimed at getting people up and walking — 30 minutes a day, five days a week — to improve overall health and meet adult physical activity recommendations and requirements.

A robust hub, www.everybodywalk.org contains news and resources on walking, health information, walking maps, links to walking groups, inspirational videos, and a personal pledge form designed to motivate walkers. The Every Body Walk! mobile app provides a perfect path to access this rich content. The Every Body Walk! hub is accessible on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Every Body Walk! is powered by Kaiser Permanente. Campaign partners include America Walks, American College of Sports Medicine and its Exercise is Medicine® global initiative, American Hiking Society, AnyTime Fitness, Brazos Walking Sticks, Environmental Media Association, Everyday Health, Healthy Child Healthy World, Molina Healthcare, Power Rangers emPower, The Purpose Institute, Rails to Trails Conservancy, Safe Routes to School National Partnership, Technical Consumer Products, WalkBoston and Yummy Earth.