Walking
The Body’s Natural
Exercise
Walking is your body’s most
natural form of exercise. Most people don’t think of walking as exercise
because it’s not strenuous of difficult. It’s something you can do
easily, alone or with a friend, at your convenience, and at no cost, except for maybe a good pair of walking shoes.
Walking has many hidden health benefits. Regular walks will help you to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight when combined
with a sensible diet. It strengthens your cardiovascular system; tones all of
your major muscle groups; helps the body resist disease by strengthening your immune system; and reduces stress to promote
an overall sense of well-being.
The U.S. government even recognizes
walking as a health benefit! It is currently considering a “national walking
program” promotion to motivate people to get moving for improved health. The
national obesity rate has skyrocketed in recent years and regular walking is being recommended by top researchers as the easiest
way the majority of our inactive citizens can make positive health changes. You
may have heard of L. Brooks Patterson’s “Count your Steps” program in the Michigan school system where children
wear pedometers to reach a certain number of steps per day. Research suggests
you walk at least 10,000 steps per day for health benefits. Buying a pedometer
is a great motivator if you want to begin a walking program. It gives you an
easy way to set goals to achieve.
To start a walking program, be sure
to have comfortable footwear and begin your walks at a regular pace. Try to walk
at least every other day to build flexibility and endurance. Gradually increase
the distance of your walks, and as you become better conditioned, increase your pace, swing your arms and concentrate on your
breathing. Walk at a pace where your breathing and heart rate are escalated and
you are able to talk comfortably, but not sing. This is the proper intensity
at which you’ll achieve the best cardiovascular and calorie burning benefits.
Make it a goal to walk for at least 30 minutes per day. Make small weekly
goals such as adding an extra 10 minutes or 5 blocks per walk to gain a good sense of accomplishment, which will keep you
motivated.
A brisk one-hour walk can burn up
to as much as 400 calories! Recommended exercise guidelines suggest the average
person should burn between 700-2,000 calories per week in some form of exercise for improved health. That means just a half hour to 45 minute walk per day puts you at the high end of this spectrum to gain
ultimate health and weight loss benefits.
Following dinner with a walk is a
great way to get your digestive system moving, eliminating that sluggish feeling you may often experience after a large meal.
As long as you can walk free of any
pain, you’re never too young or too old to start a regular walking program. It
is recommended that, regardless of age, you talk with your doctor before beginning any program of physical activity, especially
if you haven’t exercised lately or have existing health concerns.
Pick up a professionally designed
walking program for the treadmill, track or trail at www.GetThatBody.com. This
program has been designed to give you the best calorie burning benefits by increasing your heart rate to your ultimate calorie
burning level using the highly-recommended “Interval Training” technique.
Interval training causes cutting edge
fat loss. The idea is to elevate the intensity of exercise to extreme levels
for brief periods of time. For example:
Walk on a treadmill for 7 minutes at a semi-fast pace, then incline the platform or jog to increase to a higher intensity
for about 30 seconds, and back off again for 1-3 minutes. Do these 30 second
sprints 8-12 times within a 30-40 minute workout to get the ultimate calorie burn in the minimal amount of time. The same can be applied to an outdoor walk by climbing steps or bleachers, or simply by picking up the
pace to your fastest walk for 30 seconds, then slowing again.
Experience the many great benefits
of weight loss and improved health through a simple walking plan.
Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise is constant movement
which strengthens your heart and cardiovascular system by forcing it to adapt to the stress of the exercise. By performing any type of exercise that heightens your heart rate, you will burn extra calories, thereby
complimenting your weight loss program. You should perform some type of aerobic
exercise for about 30-40 minutes, a minimum of 3 days per week.
A good fast walk, running, swimming,
step-class or in-line skating are just a few good examples of aerobic exercise. You
can also put on your favorite music and fast dance your way to a good calorie burn.
Doing activities you enjoy will get you doing it more often and will add to your weight loss success. You don’t want to dread your work-outs do you? Find
activities you enjoy. Any activity that gets your heart racing, but does not
leave you gasping for breath is a good calorie-burner.
Here is a look at how to figure your
ideal calorie-burning heart rate zone:
220 minus your Age = [H]
85% (x .85) of [H] = Maximum Heart
Rate
70% (x .70) of [H] = Ideal Exercise
Heart Rate (for best calorie burning benefits)
40% (x .40) of [H] = Resting Heart
Rate
Track your Heart Rate: Take your wrist pulse:
Count the beats for 6 seconds and multiply it by 10 to get your current heart rate.
Do this before exercise, which is
your Resting Heart Rate (RMR) and during exercise to get to your ideal heart rate (IHR).
Tip: Get to know this feeling of intensity in both breathing and effort to easily recognize
your ideal calorie-burning zone.
Resistance Exercise
Any exercise that uses your muscle
as resistance will keep your bones and muscles healthy which is beneficial to your ongoing good health and well-being. Each year as we age after the age of 25, we lose essential muscle mass, which is why
elderly people lose the ability to bend down and get back up, or even walk. It’s
caused by years of not challenging the muscles and weakened bones.
The good news is, this decline in
muscle and bone mass can be reversed at any time in your life. Weight training
does more than build muscle, it can also strengthen bones. Even if you haven’t lifted a weight before, you’ll
find it’s easy to do and the benefits are many, now and especially into your later years.
You should start any resistance program
with light weights or resistance bands as not to cause injury. Muscles should
always be warmed up prior to resistance moves simply by using easy motions like marching in place, arm circles and jumping
jacks. Never stretch cold muscles, save the stretches for after your workouts. A cold muscle can snap and cause injury (think cold silly putty).
Muscle strengthening activity should
be included 2-3 times per week in addition to aerobic for ultimate fat-burning, weight loss and health. For each pound of
muscle you gain, you'll burn 30 to 50 extra calories daily by boosting your metabolism.
In other words, by replacing 5
pounds of fat with muscle, you can burn up to 250 calories more throughout the day than you do now, in addition to the calories burned during the workout!
By building muscle, you will burn
more calories even while sleeping!
How To Build the Muscle You
Want
For Bulk - Use Heavy Weights and
5-8 Reps per Set
For Toning - Use Moderate Weights
and 10-12 Reps per Set
Need to Lose 30+ Pounds? - Use Light
Weights and 15-25 Reps per Set
(Rep or Repetition = 1 complete movement;
1 set = a certain number of reps)
To use the correct weight for your
goal, you want to fatigue the muscle by the last repetition.
Summary
Finally, don’t believe the
fad diets, magic pills and gimmicks you see. Diet pills give false promises and
often require you to change your eating habits, which are not mentioned in the ads.
Some fad diets may work, but are unhealthy in the long-run and you will regain the weight once you go back to normal
eating patterns.
The only real way to a healthy body
weight is to redesign your menu to include healthy but exciting meals and add regular activity to your life. Remember to choose foods closest to their original form, such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, low-fat
dairy, beans and lean meats. Get moving to your favorite exercise at least 3-4
times per week for optimum health well into your later years. You may also want
to take a multi-vitamin to get the nutrients you may not always get from your daily diet.
Add years to your life and life to
your years!
Get the valuable Successful Weight Loss E-book today!:
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