Walking for Fitness and Exercise
Walking is the best exercise to decrease health risks and improve your fitness. There are several walking styles and variations in how much to walk depending on your fitness goals. Choosing the right way of walking is crucial to attain your fitness objectives. Walking faster and also in a smooth way is the right way of walking. If you walk in a wrong way, it leads to wasted effort and sometimes may cause an injury.
Here are few important steps and tips to start your walking exercise routine and benefit most from it.
Set Reasonable Expectations
If you are starting walking exercise program after a long time or starting it anew, it’s better you start it slow. Walk shorter distances in the beginning.
Find A Good Place for Walking Routine
The place you choose should be comfortable to walk. If the place you chose to walk is too steep or curvy, it’s uncomfortable to walk and you gain nothing from it. So, make sure you choose places with flat terrains. You can try walking in the nearest park or school ground. If that place is far away, go till there in your car or bike.
Plan a Happy First Walk
Make sure that the first walk in your walking program is an easy and happy experience. Choose an easy distance, so you get back easily to the place from where you started. Walking a distance of not more than a quarter mile on an oval track is the best way to start walking routine.
Distance Walked Doesn’t Matter
How far you walk does not matter initially. What matters is how much time you spent walking. Pay attention to faster and farther walks later.
Set A Time
The best thing you need to do is setting a time to walk. Don’t worry how small it is. Try to achieve that target. Keep increasing that time from week to week. 2-5 minutes of time is enough for the initial walking trials.
Keep Increasing the Time
After you achieved the initial target of 5 min keep increasing it by 30 sec – 1 min till you reach 10 minutes target. When you achieve the 10 minutes target increase it by 5 min every week.
Move on to Speed and Difficulty
After you achieve 45 minutes of walking time concentrate on speed and difficulty. Come out of the grounds and parks, and start walking on the city streets. When you face hills and slopes while walking, it increases the difficulty of walking.
Change Speed According to Target Heart Rate
Learn calculating your target heart rate [THR] from your fitness expert or using online sources. If your heart rate while walking is below the THR, you need to increase the walking speed to benefit most from it. If it is above the THR, decrease your walking speed. Remember the fact that you will lose weight and gain fitness through sustained walking routine. Fitness will not come by increasing walking speed or distance.
Practice Interval Training in Walking
When walking, walk at a higher speed for 1-2 min and then walk at normal pace. Practice this interval high speed walking in between till you reach your target time, including the rest periods. When you are fit, minimize the rest periods to 1-2 min and walk at above normal speed during the remaining time.
Happy walking!