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380AEW Article

Airmen take 10,000 steps for love -- of health

  • Published
  • By Capt. Cathleen Snow
  • 380th Air Expeditiionary Wing
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  But I would walk 5,000 steps, and I would walk 5,000 more just to be the man who walked 10,000 steps to fall down.....at your door?

Well that's sort of how the Scottish pop band, the Proclaimers sang the chorus of their song, "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)." But in their 1980s pop song, they're singing about sacrifices for love.

A new program which took its first steps April ending in May at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia was also about sacrificing; sacrificing in the form of effort - taking a few extra steps for love -- of better health. Airmen would be connected at the hip with this new love, literally. It would be a pedometer to measure their every step.

The 10,000 Steps a Day program is not new to the fitness and health community, but it is new to servicemembers in deployed locations, explained Master Sgt. Greg Ramos, 380th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron Fitness Director at an undisclosed base in Southwest Asia. "To my knowledge it has not been done (at overseas bases in direct support of the war). We started it as a means to motivate people to get up and out and about."

Sergeant Ramos explained, unless you have an active job, like an aircraft maintainer, civil engineer or dining facility worker where you are up and about all day, it is difficult to take 10,000 steps a day.

"The goal of taking 10,000 steps in a day is a rough equivalent to the Surgeon General's recommendation to accumulate 30 minutes of activity most days of the week," explained Sergeant Ramos. "It should be enough to reduce your risk for disease and help you lead a longer, healthier life."

He said they started the program to motivate people to be more active, lose weight and prepare for the new Air Force physical training standards. "Adding a touch of competition never hurts," he joked. "It was fun to see how many people were doing 'step checks' in the middle of the day to see where they were at compared to others."

The best part of the program he said was that the troops learned what they needed to do to be more active, such as taking a walk after dinner; adding 10 minutes to their cross trainer workout; or adding an extra mile to their run. "Hopefully they will keep up their new habit of walking 10,000 steps a day. As a motivational tool, we allowed people to keep their pedometers if they reached 200,000 steps total during the five-week competition."

The Fitness Center said the program was by far the most popular fitness event they've ever hosted and they are gearing up to host another five-week competition starting June 21st for the new rotation of personnel deploying in.

Those with the most steps in the first competition were as follows:

Army Sergeant First Class Ralph Tabler won 60 dollars for taking for 655, 575 steps
Air Force Master Sgt. Tisha Gilmore won 50 dollars for taking 635, 054 steps
Air Force Master Sgt. Mark Voss won 30 dollars for taking 585,201 steps
Senior Airman Elizabeth Licari won 25 dollars for taking 474,923 steps
Senior Master Sgt Christopher Thai- 20 dollars for taking 463,923 steps
Master Sgt Greg Ramos- 15 dollars for taking 455,908 steps

The Fitness Center staff got to meet a lot of the base populace through hosting 10,000 Steps and they said it forced people get stepping even if they had to catch up at the end of the work day to get their steps in.

The 380th AEW supports Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. It's comprised of five groups and 18 squadrons and the wing's deployed mission includes air refueling, surveillance and reconnaissance in support of overseas contingency operations in Southwest Asia.