Walk On Rock On is in full swing

(Frances L Fruit)

On May 17, walking guru Leslie Sansone began sending participants of iVillage's WalkOn RockOn Community Challenge four weeks of free daily walking assignments and music suggestions.

The challenge encourages people everywhere to get fit simply by walking to good tunes daily.

If you haven't had a chance to sign-in for free on the site, here is the 23-minute walking challenge for May 18:

- Walk 5 minutes at an easy pace (500 steps), followed by 5 minutes at a brisk pace (700 steps) 
- Start your intervals: Do 3 sets of fast walking (30 seconds each), followed by recovery walking (3 minutes each)
- Cool down with 3 minutes of slow walking (300 steps)

And the three recommended songs to keep you energized are "Superwoman" by Alicia Keys; "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" by The Temptations; and "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" by Stevie Wonder.

To find out what is in store for tomorrow, join the challenge and sign up for free at: http://challenges.ivillage.com/walkon-rockon

About.com, a content site, also offers a similar program minus the tunes. The 30-Day Fitness Challenge combines exercises, flexibility, nutrition, and a mind/body component. To learn more about this well-being free email challenge, visit:  http://exercise.about.com/c/ec/26.htm

Also, there is a free iPhone application Walk nPlay that can create a healthy competition between friends or the computer in the fight for the fittest by monitoring physical activity throughout the day based on height and weight and charting/scoring your activity. Plus it has the ability to detect very low speeds (0.8km/h) of movement, not always captured by pedometers and other devices. Walk nPlay is available via the iTunes store.