Walking Your Way to Better Health and Fitness!!!
Walking is a great way to get exercise. It’s great exercise for rookies and experienced devotees alike. Furthermore, besides a set of comfortable walking shoes, it requires no gyms or fitness equipment. It’s as simple as step one to step two and voila better health and fitness.
Nevertheless, if you plan on walking to the land of fitness and better health, you will need some best practices, plans of approach and useful tips to expedite your arrival and prolong your stay as a full Fitness Walker
The Mission Statement
Believe it or not, taking the time to record why you are walking in the first place can be the biggest factor in pressing on and giving up. Fitness is not easy, and like any passion there will be times when you feel like chucking the whole challenge aside in lieu of intemperance. It’s normal, but how you choose to get back up and keep struggling forward will ultimately decide your measures of success. Do yourself a favor and write it down, this way you will have your essential motivation when the need arises.
Understand the Benefits
Another good way to keep motivated toward your goals is with a full understanding of the service you are giving yourself. Walking not only keeps your bones, muscles and joints in good conditions, it helps you live longer as well. This has been established ion medical studies and the facts show that a 75 minute of exercise each week lived two full years longer. If that figure is moved toward I hour each day, four and half years are added to the life expectancy.
But, that’s not all! It has been shown that taking three hour-long walks in a week centers the mind, improves confidence and even helps you feel better about yourself.
Set a goal
Goals are also important to a clearer plan for progress. While any amount of exercise is better than none at all, you also need to think about capitalizing on the benefits. According to Orthotic Shop, 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week can provide the most basic set of health benefits. So, pencil in about 2 and a half hours of your week to walk about.
Break things up
How you choose to set up your exercise routines is entirely up to you. You can choose 22-minute walks each day, or 40-minute walks, every other day. You may even consider two short 10-minute walks 14 times a week, if this is what your schedule allows.
Chose a Challenging Pace for Best Results
You will also need to be moving at a pace that suits you. This will include a number of factors including your age, height and level of fitness. The terrain you are navigating will also play a role in setting your comfortable pace.
The goal is to set a pace that will challenge your fitness level as this is what is improving your heart rate and physical conditions. You will want to be able to hold a conversation but not have enough breath to break out into song. You will feel your body temperature increase, your heart rate as well and these are signs that you are operating at the proper elevated level. If you are looking for a way to get more out of your time spent on the road, consider trying this dynamic form of walking for a more challenging routine.
What does this mean in terms of effort exerted? This means that your average 40-year old woman can burn around 300 calories in an hour. This is the same content you can find in a ¾ cup of Brown rice and side of chicken breast.