How to Start Walking for Exercise

by | Apr 5, 2013 | Exercise, Fat Loss | 0 comments

Walking is a basic movement we use every day, but it can require discipline to walk enough to gain health benefits. It’s recommended that individuals take at least 10,000 steps each day for exercise, which can be easily measured by a pedometer. Read on for other tips on starting a walking regimen.

Steps

 Preparing for your walks

  1. Find a good place to walk. Generally, the locations have a flat terrain, straight path, smooth surface and minimal traffic. The convenient choice would be the neighborhood around your block, but if the road is too steep, curvy or just not what you’re looking for, you might want to consider other areas around your town.
  • Ensure you are wearing appropriate footwear as walking puts a bit of pressure on your feet which can cause pain. Also, be sure you are wearing the correct footwear for the weather.
  • Take your car to a park if it’s too far away to walk; parks are often flat and very peaceful.
  • Some cities have bike boulevards or walking paths that are relatively flat and well-maintained. They also generally have less traffic from cars. These are good areas to pick for walking as well.
  • If you won’t be tempted by the stores, shopping malls are also good locations for walking around. They are flat, large, and probably contain many different paths so you won’t become bored.
  • If you live near a large body of water, the shoreline can be a nice, relaxing place to get some fresh air and to work in an early morning hike.
  • If indoor exercise is your thing, use a treadmill set to a slow speed for walking.
  • Make an exercise playlist. It may help to have music playing as you take your walk, especially if you are easily bored from low-key activities. Consider listening to music that also gives your mind room to wander and think about other parts of your life. You can also listen to music that is upbeat that you know that will keep your motivation your walk. Walks are an excellent opportunity to reflect and plan for the future, although take care to avoid stressful topics. Your walk should definitely be a chance to unwind!
  • Set reasonable expectations for your progress. If you have been sedentary for a long period of time, you will want to start out slower and aim for shorter distances. Write these tangible goals down in a notebook or calendar so that you can keep yourself on track and monitor small successes.
    • Note, however, that walking is a fairly mild exercise that does not require vigorous physical exertion. Therefore, with the right equipment, you will likely be physically capable of walking for hours. You won’t meet the same fatigue that a more vigorous exercise, such as running or weightlifting, could lead to.
  • Develop a strong mental attitude for “slow but steady” exercise. This will be easier for some than for others. To borrow from a popular phrase, walking is definitely a marathon, not a sprint, so get your mental endurance ready before you begin this trek.
    • Don’t expect to see fast results. Incorporating walking into your daily schedule is about making healthier choices towards a better lifestyle, and it’s a change that you should maintain indefinitely. Don’t use walking as a get-fit-quick scheme or as a quick, one-shot weight loss tool.
  • Hydrate well before you begin walking. Make sure you have consumed at least 8-16 ounces of water an hour before you are about to walk. Drink more water if you plan to walk for a longer time. You don’t want to become dehydrated while you are exercising, especially under a hot sun.
    • You may find it convenient to carry a metal water bottle with you as you walk, so you can stay hydrated throughout your trek.
    • Some people develop stomach cramps if they drink water right before or while they exercise, so be careful of that. Give your body time to process the water before diving into exercise.
    • Don’t drink so much water, however, that you’ll need a bathroom while on a long walk.

 Setting out on your walk

  1. Pick an easy first walk. Make sure that no matter how far you get from your starting point, you are able to get back there. Walking on an oval track no more than a quarter mile around should be perfect.
    • If you feel comfortable in extending the walk past what you initially set, go for it! As aforementioned, walking is less physically taxing than most activities, so don’t be afraid to exceed your goals.
  2. Set a time. When you first start walking, decide how many minutes you will walk. Choose a length of time you know you can make. Do not worry about how short that period is. Just keep moving until you reach it. 2-5 minutes each day is a good start. That time will increase from week to week.
    • Pay no attention to how far you walk. It matters more that you walk for a longer period of time. Faster and farther walks will come with experience.

 Improving your performance

  1. Increase your time. Each walk, increase your walking time by 30 seconds to 1 minute until you are able to sustain a 10-minute walk. Again, do not fret if you can’t go longer than the day before. Set the goal and keep at it and you will reach it faster than you think. After reaching 10 minutes, your rate of increasing may slow, but continue trying to increase your walking time by 5 minutes each week.
  2. Work on speed and difficulty after you are able to walk for 45 minutes each day. Try moving off of the oval and onto the city streets; you will encounter hills and declines, and that will increase the difficulty of your walk.
    • Continue to find more difficult terrain to work with, eventually working up to hiking up hills and cliffs for the ultimate challenge.
  3. Determine your target and maximum heart rate. You can also purchase a heart rate monitor and wear it during your exercise for increased accuracy and precision. If you are under your target heart rate (THR), you need to increase walking speed for it to be beneficial for your health.
    • Your body won’t burn fat unless you reach you THR for a sustained period of time.
    • When it comes to walking, weight loss and aerobic health will come through sustained effort, not through increased speed or distance.
  4. After you’ve worked into a general routine, try switching things up with interval training. Walk at an increased rate for one to two minutes, then slow back to your normal rate for two minutes. Every day or two add an interval until you reach your desired total time, including rest periods. As you become more physically fit, reduce your rest periods until they are down to a minute or less.

Video

Great way to start an exercise regimen. Start with walking a few times a week. Vary the speed you walk and incline. Be consistent with your activity.

Tips

  • Swing your arms as you walk.
  • Walking may cause cramps. If a cramp occurs, place your hands on your head and begin breathing through your nose and out your mouth at a slow steady rate. Be sure to bring a water bottle with you.
  • Try using an iPod or other MP3 player to add entertainment to the walk. Books on tape make the walk go by faster and you may want to walk longer. When doing this, however, be extra careful to look out for cars if you are walking on a street, since you may not be able to hear approaching vehicles over your audio device.
  • If you drive, park your car a block or two away from where you live, that way you have to walk to get to it.
  • Walking is a very good stress management technique in addition to being good exercise. If you practice active abdominal breathing during each step, you will benefit even more.
  • Wear comfortable clothing and sturdy, supportive athletic shoes.
  • Walk with a good posture. Stand completely straight, put your shoulders back, and take long strides.
  • Learn how to race walk. It burns more calories, works more muscles and has better cardiovascular benefits.
  • In the beginning it is not necessary to warm up, however once you really start to put stress on your legs, you should participate in some light stretching.
  • You might find ways to incorporate walking into your daily routine if you can’t find the time to go walking for the sake of it: take the stairs instead of the escalator or the lift; walk to the shops if they’re close by; if you visit a friend who doesn’t live too far away, leave the car at home. It’s surprising how much difference it can make when you regularly climb a few flights of stairs and take frequent short walks.
  • Many people recognize the local mall as an excellent place to walk for exercise — safe, fun and climate-controlled.
  • When you are able to get, and stay, on your target heart rate, you will want to cool down a bit at the end of your walk. If you have been able to stay in the target rate for 20 minutes or so, spend about 5 minutes at the end of the walk trying to bring your heart rate back to where it was pre-walk. Slowing your pace down and doing some more light stretching can accomplish this. Do not stop walking to slow your heart rate in a cool down. It defeats the purpose of a cool down.
  • If you can live in a city centre where walking is a default activity and you hardly need a car, then you may find you don’t even need to think about deliberately choosing walking as an exercise, as you’ll just do it naturally.

Warnings

  • Although using an mp3 player or radio can make your walk more interesting, it also makes it difficult to hear things around you, including potential hazards such as oncoming traffic, would-be attackers, and animals. If you like to listen to music or books while you walk, keep the volume moderate and be aware of your surroundings.
  • Wear white clothing and reflective fabrics if you will be walking at night. Don’t assume that drivers are paying attention or that they can see you after dark.
  • If you are walking and become short of breath, slow down or stop. Ask for help if you need it.
  • Be prepared for your walk. Take water with you. Also take along a whistle in case you get into trouble with dogs or unsavory people. Carrying a cell phone is also a good idea.
  • Before undertaking this or any other exercise program, be sure to check with your doctor, especially if you haven’t been physically active in more than 6 months.

Things You’ll Need

  • A water bottle
  • A cellphone for emergencies
  • A whistle to call for help should you run into trouble of the criminal type
  • A hat and sunblock on sunny days
  • An mp3 or cd player so you can listen to music while walking
  • A small, clip-on pocket light or flashing armband, especially where there is no proper sidewalk or where cyclists use the sidewalk and may not see you in the dark

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Study looks at relationship between weight and exercise

by | Apr 4, 2013 | Diet, Exercise, Fat Loss, Weight gain | 0 comments

[jwplayer mediaid=”1697″]

Professor Larry Tucker

Professor Larry Tucker

This is a fascinating study in which Professor Larry Tucker took 254 ladies of whom about half are considered obese. For a whole week they wore accelerometers which measure actual movement as well as the intensity of activity that the people are going through and all the results were carefully recorded.

Some 20 months later the same participants wore accelerometers for yet another week and the results of their activity were recorded and then the two results were compared.

Briefly what the study found was that over those intervening 20 weeks the physical activity of the obese participants dropped by 8% whereas the non-obese ladies had essentially no change in the amount of physical activity they undertook putting it simply Dr. Tucker ahs now measured proof of what many of us have already understood – that in activity least the weight gain and that weight gain means that you’re less inclined to be active which results in a gradual downward spiral of inactivity which leads to further weight gain which leads to further inactivity and so on down.

But Dr. Tucker now has measured proof that it’s possible to break that cycle and indeed reverse it simply by becoming more active and deliberately so because the more active you become the less likely you are to put on weight, in fact you are more likely to start losing weight which then enables you to be more active making both your health and activity levels move in the right direction.

Link to the Brigham Young University News Release

 

Should You Exercise If You Hate It?

by | Apr 4, 2013 | Exercise, Weight Loss | 0 comments

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Many of us are familiar with the saying that “One volunteer is worth ten pressed men” and when it comes to exercise that seems to be doubly true for when we do an exercise because we want to; we seem to get far far more out of it than when we do it because we feel we have to. So what’s the key? Quite simply to find an exercise that you love doing.

In my 20s I was an avid weightlifter and at that time I enjoyed it I must admit but by the time I got o my 30s the appeal of weightlifting or spending time in the gym had waned somewhat. However I realized I needed to keep fit and that was what I knew so I went back to it. That’s when I found low carb and combining low carb way of eating with exercise meant that I was able to have a far more effective workout in less time which gave me quite a bit of a boost.

However after a number of years doing the same old thing week in-week out became somewhat boring to be frank and even though I was enjoying the fitness I wasn’t enjoying the way I was keeping fit.

Then through a number of circumstances I discovered salsa dancing and even though I was relatively fit when I started doing that I found it point a workout to say the least but the upside was it was thoroughly enjoyable – several orders of magnitude more enjoyable than weightlifting. It was fun, it was social, it was interesting. I was learning new skills, meeting new people. It was almost as if getting fit was a byproduct.

And the great thing was that in the classes and dances and so on at the weekends you could see people of broad age spectrum all dancing for literally hours on end without being out of breath or seemingly faced by the physical exertion they were getting up to and what’s true of salsa is also true of jive dancing, swaying off many other of the faster social dancing activities you can find in many towns around the country.

The bottom line of everything I’ve been saying is that if you want to get the best from any form of exercise, make sure it’s one you enjoy.

Here’s another article that sort of reinforces some of what I’ve been saying.

Article link

Kids Who Exercise Are Less Likely to Have Fractures in Old Age

by | Mar 27, 2013 | Exercise, General Health, How Your Body Works, Obesity | 0 comments

It turns out that strengthening bone to avoid fractures starts at a very young age.

Bones become more porous and brittle with age, because the cells responsible for building bone become less active and can no longer keep up with the cells that destroy and remove old bone cells. Physical activity can shift this balance toward maintaining a healthy amount of bone growth,

Physical activity, such as the exercise children get in school gym classes, is important for fighting obesity, but the latest research suggests it may help to keep bones strong as well

Link to the article

Womens study

What to eat before gym

by | Mar 15, 2013 | Exercise, Weight Loss | 0 comments

gymI used to be quite a keen body builder when I actually changed  to eating low carb during what I could consider was the peak of my bodybuilding  efforts and I found that my stamina and endurance actually got better through eating low carb. 

However I must point out that I was doing most of my exercises whilst my body was in ketosis that way it could make full use of any stored body fats as it required them.

So the question is are you in ketosis? Because whether you are or not will make a huge difference when exercising for an hour or so. If you’re not in ketosis but are happy with the way that your weight loss is going I would suggest that you only exercise for half an hour as quite frankly that’s more than  enough providing you are challenging your body sufficiently and up the speed and or weights that you are moving.

One of the best exercise systems I can suggest for low carbers is Al Sears’ PACE system. It’s a far more rational system than any other I’ve come across and works with the body to promote muscle growth and fat loss.

This is just another one of my comments on a forum post about exercise

Question for the exercise experts about breathing

by | Mar 4, 2013 | Exercise, Weight Loss | 0 comments

You have to go back quite along way in the history of weightlifting for strength and fitnes1351493754aoal7ks to understand where the breathing method comes from.

According to some of the ancient texts it would appear that athletes were encouraged to breathe in during exertion in order to stiffen the body some what as this was though to be an aid to both lifting and exertion and also the stiffening of the body meant that muscle were held in place and injury was less likely.

Other texts point out that the mere act of breathing consciously helped the athlete concentrate on the exercise that they were doing rather than be distracted by what’s going on around them.

Fast forwarding to our present century many people exercise using machines which while they offer a much safer environment to work in they do significantly limit the benefit one can get by doing the same exercise with free weights.

From my experience focus-breathing is only really necessary when you are handling very large free weights as the extra support and the consciousness of breathing both help to make sure that the lift is carried out safely.

For those of us who lift just within our normal capacity the need for conscious breathing is obviously not as crucial although some might argue that it’s helpful.

Personally when I’m exercising at normal speed I breathe with the exercise. However if I’m doing a very very slow repetition then I just breathe as I need to.

The bottom line of all of these is that the body requires a certain amount of oxygen in order to perform the exercise and not suffer oxygen depletion.

So the important thing is to breathe. How you breathe is very much up to you.

Hope that helps,

Mark

This is a comment I made on a forum post about breathing and exercise