How Walking Can Help You To Get In Shape
Posted by Hamish Hayward in Uncategorized, tags: exercise, fitness, fitness equipment, health, lose weight, Uncategorized, weight loss, workoutWhen it comes to exercise, walking is a great low impact workout that the vast majority of people can do. It needs no special equipment, there are no expensive monthly gym fees to pay and you can work it into your daily schedule whenever it’s good for you. If you look at the potential health benefits of walking you might be forgiven for thinking that you were looking at an advert for some new wonder drug - but they are very real and easily obtainable with no more than a few minor changes to your daily routine.
A target of 10,000 steps daily is often quoted as being the magic number required in order to achieve the health benefits on offer. That’s roughly equivalent to a distance of between 4.5 and 5.0 miles for the average person. It does sound like a fair old walk - but it’s a lot easier to achieve than you might imagine. Besides, when you think about the possible health benefits, it’s worth a little extra effort.
Of course, we live in a society which is increasingly sedentary - so it may very well be that you currently miss the recommended 10,000 daily steps (possibly by quite some way). If you’re not sure how many steps you currently take then it might be a good idea to get hold of a pedometer in order to find out what your daily average is. You can pick these up pretty cheaply these days - but be certain to choose one which has a double axis sensor fitted as these tend to be more accurate.
Once you know the average number of steps you take on a daily basis, you should seek out ways to make up any shortfall between your daily average and the 10,000 step target value. There are any number of ways to do this - just be sensible and start off slowly, there’s no need to do it all at once.
If you can manage to find a dedicated time in your day for a walk then that’s fantastic. If that’s not possible for you then don’t despair - there are numerous different ways to get your step count up. Leave the car at home and walk to work, school or the shops. Take the lift instead of the stairs. GEt off the subway one or two stops early and walk the last leg of your journey.
Make modern technology work in your favor by walking around whilst you talk on your cordless or mobile phone. You can squeeze in an extra 1500 steps during a fifteen minute telephone call. Opportunities for fitting walking into your day are plentiful - and they soon add up.
If you’re over forty, if you have any medical conditions, or if you just haven’t exercised for some time, then it would be a good idea to seek the opinion and advice of your doctor before you start any new fitness regime. However, walking is a low impact, low injury risk workout which will, as long as you exercise a little common sense, deliver significant health benefits. Before you know it, you will be feeling better, enjoying higher energy levels and shedding pounds.
Use an Omron pedometer to monitor your progress and try Fit flops exercise shoes to help increase the effectiveness of your walking workout.
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