Everyone is encouraged to attend the Walk-With-A-Doc event on Saturday Jan. 18 at 9 a.m. from Veteran’s Park at the corner of Overland Avenue and Culver Boulevard for a 60-minute walk into Downtown Culver City.
Led by a Culver-Palms YMCA trainer, the walk session will also include a prewalk stretching and exercising routine at 8:40 a.m.
“I felt it was a natural fit,” Culver City Mayor Jeff Cooper said. “It is our responsibility as elected officials to promote good health to our youngsters as well as our seniors.”
Walk-With-A-Doc began in Ohio and now covers the US and Canada. It has recently reached Australia and Moscow. The idea of a Culver City walk came to Mayor Cooper while exercising and talking with Dr. Jeffrey Penso at the Culver-Palms YMCA.
This is the first time Walk-With-A-Doc takes place in the city, there is support for making it a recurring event.
“I’d like to see this start as a once a month event that finishes each walk with a health care professional giving information and tips to maintain a healthy lifestyle,” Mayor Cooper said. “As popularity increases, a weekly walk with a doc would be great.”
According to the American Heart Association, walking has the lowest dropout rate of any physical activity. Walking for as little as 30 minutes a day can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease,
Improve blood pressure and blood sugar levels, maintain body weight and lower the risk of obesity, enhance mental wellbeing, improve blood lipid profile, reduce the risk of osteoporosis, reduce the risk of breast and colon cancer and reduce the risk of Type-two diabetes.
While Cooper is credited for bringing the idea to the city, the mayor acknowledges that there were other people involved that had a big impact on making Saturday’s event possible.
“This is the first one and my initial idea was fully brought to fruition by the collaboration of Dr. Jeffrey Penso and Grace Elliot, two friends that I see regularly at the YMCA gym,” Mayor Cooper said.
Walking is low impact and easier on the joints than running. It is considered safe, with a doctor’s approval, for people with orthopedic ailments, heart conditions, and those who are more than 20 percent overweight.