Heart Beat

Pedometer-powered walking

Interested in walking an extra mile a day? Get a pedometer and clip it to your belt. The silent tally of your daily steps may be all you need to take more of them.

Exercise gurus have been promoting the use of pedometers for years. These small, pager-sized devices clock every step a person takes. To see if they really help people get more physical activity, Stanford University researchers looked at the results of the 26 best pedometer studies conducted so far. The simple act of wearing one added more than 2,000 steps a day. At an average step length of 2.5 feet, that's an extra mile.