Walk Your Way to Being Fit

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If you want to be stay in shape, be fit, and have strong heart and bones, all you have to do is walk. The media portrays celebrities doing activities such as climbing, kickboxing, stretching or running. They may lead you to believe that this is what you have to do to have a fit body and look like a model. Forget about joining a gym or hiring a trainer. All you have to do is walk.

Walk by yourself or with family or friends. Rediscover your neighborhood and nature. Just make sure you do it at a brisk pace and you’re on your way.

Walking can help reduce the risk of diabetes. A study showed that people who were overweight and walked at least 150 minutes each week reduced their risk of diabetes by almost 60 percent. Who wouldn’t want those odds?
You do a lot of walking during the day and it can add up. If you want to track your steps, wear a pedometer. A good goal is to aim for 10,000 steps per day. You may have to add steps to your daily routine to reach that goal.

You can add steps in many ways. One way is to park further away from the building where you work or shop. If you are talking on the phone at home, walk around while talking. When you take those 10,000 steps a day, it is about the same as doing 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise.

Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis determined that walking can be a “spot-reducer.” They studied both men and women between the ages of 60 and 70, on a nine to twelve month exercise program that included either walking or jogging. The people spent 45 minutes several days a week doing their exercise. At the end of the twelve months, both men and women had lost weight, much of it from their abdominal area. This proves that walking can help reduce abdominal fat which can otherwise be hard to get rid of.

Walking is perhaps the simplest and safest physical activity for calorie burning and for strengthening your heart. Walk for as long as you can. Many weight loss studies show that enough calories to loose weight is not achieved until you have walked for at least 30 minutes a day.

If you’re a beginner to a walking program, be sure to start out slow. The first week you should aim for 20 minutes, three times a week. Over the next few weeks increase your walking time to 30 minutes. Gradually increase the number of days you walk until you are walking at least five times a week for 30-45 minutes. Be sure to walk at a good enough pace to increase your heart rate.

Some additional tips for walking include:

  • Look forward and keep your head level as you walk.
  • Wear good fitting, athletic shoes.
  • Breathe deeply.
  • Keep your elbows close to your sides and bent at about a 90-degree angle. You can swing your arms back and forth gently.
  • Your heel should strike the ground before the rest of your foot. Roll from your heel to the ball of your foot. Then push off of the ball of your foot to give momentum for your next step.

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