Came across an interesting web site that may be of benefit to those of us who need a bit of motivation to add to our usual list of walking equipment and gear. It’s called

By signing up you join a virtual community of like minded individuals, all interested in exercise and fitness. While incorporating all forms of individual sports activity, this site should be of special interest to the walker since it integrates several different functional levels that will appeal to the occasional walker as well as to the highly dedicated. At the basic level Endomondo provides a walker with route planning and an exercise journal.. Using Google Earth, it enables you to manually create any number of walking routes with mileage automatically calculated. Something we discussed in a blog post a while back. Once the routes are established you can then keep track of your walks manually inputting the information on a handy online journal. Plugging in the walk time, it will calculate things like average speed and calories burned. Its’ community feature allows you to hook up with friends or acquaintances and follow each one’s exercise routines and results. You can issue one another challenges and/or create competitive teams. You can also access your friends records to find new walking routes or you can share your favorite walks with others.

This would be worthwhile by itself but Endomondo takes it a step further. They have a piece of software that you can download on to walking equipment such as a GPS enabled phone or GPS dedicated devise. By take the programed equipment with you on your walk all the basic exercise information can be directly inputted into your Endomondo record with things like route traveled, time, speed, calories burned, etc. automatically calculated. It will create a permanent route record and can be shared with friends or teams. Conversely, you can follow your friends and team members’ progress as they conduct their workouts.

Everyone loves a good challenge. Making a commitment to a friend, colleague or family member often times gives us that little bit extra dedication and motivation to get out and get that exercise walk in. The team aspect provides an added dimension. If you are a member of a walking club what better way to keep motivated than to challenge other clubs or separate sub-groups of club members. This team challenge feature would also be most useful in a work setting. Pitting departments or even competitors against one another for the title of “Most Fit”.

From any number of perspective it seems that the Endomondo web site can provide the walker with a number of features that will keep him/her motivated and engaged. It helps you set your goals and measure your performance. It helps you organize and plan your exercise activity. Finally it takes some of the isolation out of the walking activity and in the end keeps you in touch with others who share your enthusiasm. For these reasons I’d recommend that you add Endomondo to your list of critical walking equipment.

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