Need help gathering info on health benefits

Boxer757 · 02-25-2007, 12:58 PM

Hey guys I'm hoping some of you can help me out. I apologize if this is the wrong section to be posting this but I didn't want to post it in the general misc. forum b/c it is fitness oriented.

Basically I am working with a committee at my university that is currently trying to solve the "parking problem." We have plenty of parking but one of our biggest lots is around .5-1 mile away from campus depending on what building you are trying to get to. Everyone is too lazy to park out there however.

We are initiating certain incentives to get students to park in this lot that is farther away. I am in charge of marketing the fitness benefits. To do that I need to come up with information I can use to convince them that getting off their butts and walking an extra mile or so during the day will do them alot of good.
I was hoping some of you guys might know off the top of your head or know where I can find quantitative data on the health benefits of walking. And then some ideas of qualitative benefits that would follow from those.

Basically I am looking for how walking around a mile extra each day could lead to health benefits such as:

-Calories burned
-Cholesterol
-Heart health
-Improved heart rate
-Blood pressure
-Weight... how much could you lose per week/month/semester/school year
-Metabolism
-Perhaps if anyone knows of a correlation between between the physical improvments and improvements in cognitive ability. i.e., walking to class provides such and such health benefits, such and such health benefits lead to an improved mental alertness/function which leads to better grades... A study would be awesome.
-Time saved. You don't have to workout as long, perhaps you can cut back on your normal amount of cardio time.

Any info you have is great or even if you know where I can find info on those things. I have found a little already I just don't really know where else to look!
Any ideas other than what's up there are welcome as well!

I really appreciate any information/help. We're really trying to solve a problem of laziness and if I can motivate these people to do just a bit more physical activity it will help my university save money and at the same time benefit the health of the students.

Boxer757 · 02-25-2007, 09:41 PM

bump

Boxer757 · 02-26-2007, 10:12 AM

Any help? I have to make a presentation tomorrow morning...

bLacKjAcK. · 02-26-2007, 12:43 PM

Hey man, I really wish I could help you. But I have no idea...all I could suggest is google...shouldn't be hard to find

Boxer757 · 02-26-2007, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bLacKjAcK.

Hey man, I really wish I could help you. But I have no idea...all I could suggest is google...shouldn't be hard to find

Thanks man it's cool. Yeah I have found a few things through search engines but it's all very disorganized. I'm sortin through it though...

hannonman · 02-26-2007, 08:15 PM

hey man a good idea would to be to see if your school will buy u bunch of pedometers and distribute them to students who park in those lots that are far away. I forget the exact number of steps but there is a certain number something 10,000 in one day that alot people who dont have time to go to the gym try and reach each day ( you prb google it). Or since the people who park far away are probably fit anyway they could recieve some type of gym discount ( although ur campus gym is prb free),but maybe free personal training or something.

Boxer757 · 02-26-2007, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hannonman

hey man a good idea would to be to see if your school will buy u bunch of pedometers and distribute them to students who park in those lots that are far away. I forget the exact number of steps but there is a certain number something 10,000 in one day that alot people who dont have time to go to the gym try and reach each day ( you prb google it). Or since the people who park far away are probably fit anyway they could recieve some type of gym discount ( although ur campus gym is prb free),but maybe free personal training or something.

Cool man, some good ideas I'll definately see if I can look up some more info and work those in!

I would rep you but apparently I'm not spreading my little green gems around enough...

pu12en12g · 03-01-2007, 02:21 PM

They will probably want statistics etc...

http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/physicalactivity/

(Lots of references towards the bottom)

pu12en12g · 03-01-2007, 02:25 PM

The Effects of Physical Activity on Health and Disease

.PDF format

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/pdf/chap4.pdf