Walking results in the same benefits of many other types of physical exercise: It helps strengthen the heart and lungs, improves circulation, increases your confidence, reduces the risk of certain diseases, strengthens the bones, improves muscle tone, and just generally brightens your mood.
Walking works for weight loss, but you will need to make sure you are walking long enough (or fast enough) to burn some calories.
When you are just starting your walking regimen, many experts recommend focusing on distance before you focus on speed. If you get too caught up on your intensity, you may burn out before you have established your walking routine on a daily basis.
You can burn roughly the same number of calories with a short, fast walk as with a long, slower walk. The biggest factor in your overall success will be your consistency. Make sure that you choose the right combination of pace and intensity that keeps the exercise fun for you. There will be some days that you want to take a long stroll. Others, you may want to power walk, burn some energy, and really get your heart pumping.
Most walking fitness experts recommend that you have some sort of activity each day. You can alternate your sessions of higher intensity power walking with lower intensity workouts. Just make sure you are getting out there at least 5 days a week, for 30 to 60 minutes at a time.
If you find it difficult to walk for 30 minutes when you are just starting out, start small and work your way up. It will not take long before you are walking for longer distances, especially if you make a goal to walk nearly every day.
For maximum health benefits, you will also want to make sure that you are walking fast enough to increase your heart rate. Fitness experts say that, for weight loss, you need to be walking for 30 to 60 minutes at 50 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. Of course, you will need to stretch first and walk slowly for five minutes before and after the workout.
You can also try interval training, in which you walk quickly for a few minutes, and then slow it down for a few minutes. Alternating between higher and lower intensity periods throughout your workout can get your heart pumping and help you to quickly build physical endurance.
Once you have established your walking routine, you can burn even more calories by choosing a route with challenging hills or by strapping small weights to your wrists or ankles. There are also several techniques that will help you build muscle tone as you walk. Concentrate on keeping a good posture, for example, flex your leg muscles and hold in your stomach. Focusing on good walking techniques such as these can help you maximize the time you spend in your walking shoes.
Make it Fun
Here are few ideas to help you make walking a fun adventure that you will look forward to each day:
Make sure you are comfortable and hydrated. Invest in a good pair of walking shoes, which will increase your comfort and reduce your risk of injury. And drink water before, during, and after your walking workout.
Search out new walking or hiking trails in your town or county.
Check out books on tape from the library or download an mp3 to enjoy on your headphones while you are walking.
Schedule your walk like any other event in your busy day. Put it on your calendar and regard it as an important appointment.
Find a friend to be your walking partner. Your friend will hold you accountable and may make the miles seem to pass more quickly. Sometimes, when we get very busy, our friendships can become neglected. When you walk with a friend, you carve out time for physical fitness and your friendship.
If you have small children, take them out in the stroller. Older kids can walk alongside you. My young son likes to ride his bike alongside me.
Take a dog. When I take my dog along, I feel as though I am doing something constructive with my time. If you do not have a dog, see if there is an animal shelter in your area that needs volunteer dog walkers. This is a great way to serve a greater purpose and get in your daily walk at the same time.
Stay Safe
Here are a few considerations to help you stay safe during your daily walks.
Walking with a friend (or even a dog) is safer than walking alone.
Tell someone when you are leaving, where you are going, and when you expect to return.
Do not bring valuables with you on your walk.
Vary your route.
Stay in well lit, busy areas.
Stay alert. Keep your headphones on a low setting so you can still hear what is going on around you.
A walking routine is a great way to enjoy all the benefits of regular physical exercise. Enjoy creating an exercise program that will be part of your life for a long time to come.
Note: The tips in this article are for general information only. Before starting any exercise routine, you should consult with your doctor.
With obesity and disease increasing dramatically, many fitness experts are recommending walking for weight loss and fitness. Some are even going so far as saying that walking is the best way to burn fat and lose weight. I strongly disagree with this and am going to show you why walking is NOT effective at burning off body fat.
Yes, you read that correctly...
Walking is NOT effective at burning body fat and if your goal is fat loss you might be wasting your time. I am not saying that walking is not beneficial, I am saying that if fat loss is the primary goal, there are far better choices that will deliver far better results.
The primary benefits of walking are increased blood flow and circulation, improved recovery, and a strengthened immune system. There are several reasons why walking is not the best choice when it comes to fat loss.
Here are just a few:
1. Walking does NOT burn a lot of calories
The lower the intensity of the activity or exercise the smaller the number of calorie s burned per unit of time. For example, you can burn more calories in 15 minutes of bicycling at a high intensity level than you can in 45 minutes of easy walking.
2. Walking does NOT result in a large increase in metabolism
Another downside to walking is that because it's generally low intensity it results in only a small increase in metabolism that will only last approximately 1-2 hours after the walk. On the other hand, metabolism increases are larger and last longer (4-24 hrs or more) when you perform high intensity cardio workouts.
3. Walking does NOT deplete muscle glycogen
Low intensity exercise like walking does not deplete muscle glycogen levels and therefore, later that day if you have excess calories they will likely be stored a s body fat whereas if you deplete the glycogen the excess calories will primarily be stored in the muscles.
So why then do so many fitness and health experts recommend walking for weight loss? One reason is that people don't want to hear that they have to work hard so they figure some activity is better than none. Another reason is that the body burns more fat for fuel when exercising at an easy pace, however, the total amount of energy used is so small that you end up burning off little body fat. That's also why when you choose the ?fat burning? program on your treadmill or bike it has you exercise at any easy level. Yes, you're burning fat, but so little that you'd have to exercise at that easy pace for hours and hours each day.
High intensity cardiovascular/aerobic exercise is much more effective in burning off the excess body fat. In fact, several studies have been done to prove this. In one study they compared one group who did moderate level aerobics for 45 minutes with another group who performed high intensity workouts for 15 minutes. They did before and after fitness testing including body fat analysis and found that the group who performed the high intensity aerobics lost nine times as much body fat!
Want more proof? Here's something I cover in depth in my book Burn Fat Fast....
Compare the bodies of a walker, marathon runner, and sprinter. If you are not familiar with what a sprinter s body looks like, it is very muscular and has little body fat while on the other hand the body of a walker will likely have the opposite, little muscle and more fat. The sprinter does little or no low intensity exercise and does primarily short hard bursts of work while the marathoner overtrains so much they burn off both the body fat and the muscle and that's why they tend to look almost sickly thin.
So what should you do then if your main objective is to shed those excess pounds of body fat?
Two things:
1. Perform some form of high intensity cardio 2-4 times per week
2. Stabilize blood sugar to minimize the storage of new fat
I know some of you by now are saying ?I can't do high intensity exercise, I have a bad knee? and don't worry, I have a solution for you. The good news is that high intensity is all relative to you and your current fitness level. For example, fast walking up and down hills may be high intensity for you... it all depends. So don't think that you have to start running or something like that. Just slowly start to increase the intensity of your cardio workouts while also maybe decreasing the time because you can either work hard or you can work long.
Also, you can make almost any activity or exercise high intensity.... here are a few examples:
increase your speed
use an incline or hills
increase resistance
perform intervals ( the most effective method)
Obviously, some exercises/activities or better suited than other s but the point is if you want to burn more fat and make your workouts as productive as possible you need to increase the intensity.
Both Jamie Jefferson & Alien are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jamie Jefferson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Fitness, Family Travel and Online Dating. Jamie Jefferson writes for and where you'll find the. Jamie Jefferson's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.
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