The Benefits of Walking

[stanley]

Walking is good for the heart. It also clears mind and gives you better feeling for the day.

[Edwin]

This evening while eating supper we started watching Bill and Gloria Gaither's Homecoming Picnic, and because of it lasting 90 minutes I was late walking my dog Scoobie. Tonight I walked for a while in the dark, and I didn't walk as far as I normally do, but I will do better, and I do better most of the time with about a 5 mile walk each evening.

[Edwin]

My wife and our daughter belong to a spinner's, knitter's, weaver's guild. Carol was the crafty one, but she passed it on to our daughter, and now sometimes she helps Carol figure out patterns, and so on. Our daughter is one of the ones that leads the group. They met at our daughter's place today. I took my big dog Scoobie to get the mail, and my sister-in-law saw him. She said that a few years ago they looked all over for a Great Swiss Mountain dog and couldn't find one. It is really funny because we rescued this one and really didn't want him, but he was our granddaughter's dog so we had to bail him out. He is doing fine now and I have gotten attached to him. He is a great friend. I walk him each evening for about one and a half hours which turns out to be about 5 miles. Scoobie and I walked over to my brother's house this evening. We visited for quite a while and still got back within one and one half hours. It was fun!

[crisipicada]

Walking is good for cardiovascular system. It energize you all through the day when you walk in the morning. And in the evening i walk at least an hour and i have a good night sleep. Exercise also helps the body stay fit.

[crisipicada]

I just read this from "signs of the times" booklet 2007 issue.

10 ways to walk smart
Walking is a fantastic and diverse form of physical activity. It's an easy, accessible, and enjoyable way to lose weight, get fit, and reduce stress, and boost your energy levels. It can be done almost anywhere, anytime, by anyone, and it's free.

But it can have some shortcomings if you want to achieve weight loss or cardiovascular fitness. These shortcomings were highlighted in a recent study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. It showed that 94 percent of people who exercise mainly by walking do not walk frequently enough or fast enough to gain real health benefits.

Following are ten important strategies to help you get the maximum benefits from your walking workouts.

1. Walk often
How often you should walk depends on your level of fitness and the duration of your walks.
For beginners. Aim for four to seven days a week. YOu need one to two months of regular walking to build a foundation of strength and fitness. 9after that, see below).
For weight loss: Walking is a low-impact, low intensity exercise, so you need to do it regularly to get a result. Do your best to exercise every day, or at least every other day. Avoid mission walking two days in a row.
For advanced walkers: Aim for three to five walks a week. Walk fast for 60 minutes, and incorporate different activities that challenge you into your program.

2. Walk fast
Speed matters. People who maintain a faster pace while walking will burn more calories and get better results. After a few weeks of regular walking, a leisurely stroll just wont cut it.
If you can't hear your breath while you walk, you're not walking fast enough. For beginners and those hoping to lose weight, walk like you're five minutes late or at a speed where you can hear yourself puff. Really gasping for breath should be left to the advanced walkers, who would benefit from regular bursts of very fast walking or running to get breathless. But giving a specific speed as a guide can be inaccurate, because it is harder for shorter people to walk at the same speed as taller people.

3. Walk long
while any exercise is better than none at all, unless you are a beginner, you will need to walk for more than ten minutes a day if you want life-changing, body shape-changing results. It's also important to consider how often and how fast you walk when determining how long you should walk.
One good way to work out the ideal duration is from a seven-day perspective, where you can vary your duration based on your frequency. Every seven days, try to accumulate about four hours of walking.
For example:
4x60-minute walks per week;
5x50-minute walks per week;
6x40 minute-walks per week;
7x35 minute-walks per week;

4. Include intervals (don't slow down on the hills)
Many people walk at the same, steady pace, day after day, walk after walk. I even see people avoiding hills on their walks or slowing to a crawling pace. But they are denying themselves the many benefits of interval training.
Little random burst of effort at different intensities boost the calorie-burning, fat-burning and fitness-increasing benefits of walking. For this reason, hills are a walker's best friend. They help you increase the intensity of your walks without having to go fast or rely on running. Actively seek out hills and power up them.
Think positively about hills, and view them as a shortcut to getting results. Another great way to add intensity without impact is to use flights of stairs, especially if you live in an area without any hills.

5. Swing your arms
Most people swing their arms, but it's the more pronounced, purposeful swinging that helps burn those extra calories. Swinging your arms energetically can help you to burn up to 10 percent more calories while you walk.
Swinging your arms a little faster will also encourage your legs to come along for the ride, and it's a good way to increase your pace. Keep your elbows bent to a 90-degree angle, keeping your shoulders down and relaxed.
Just don't exaggerate your swinging too much, or raise your arms too high, as it won't propel you any faster and can stress your shoulders.

Add variety to your walking routine
There's no doubt that variety is the spice of life, and the same rule applies to walking. If you stick to the same routine all the time, it's only natural that you will get bored and find it harder to motivate yourself.
Try to vary the location, time of day, intensity, and duration of your walks to maintain interest. Look for ways to add variety to your walking routine.

7. Measure your progress
As your walking improves, your legs will be stronger, you may weigh a little less, and your lungs will breathe a little easier. The fitter you get, the more efficient your body gets moving you around. This also means you will burn fewer calories. So unless you continue to increase the duration, intensity, or frequency of your walks, your progress will grind to a halt.
Keep a record of any information you can, such as the distance you cover, your personal best time over agiven course, the intensity of your walks, the total duration of your walks, or the total steps taken each day. Having times to beat or distance to cover also adds to your motivation.

8.Eat and drink well
Whether you are concerned about weightcontrol, fueling your walking program, or just maximize your health and vitality, what you eat and drink will have a major impact on your results. Exercise is only half the picture.
Don't focus just on walkin because if your diet is not up to par, you will struggle to enjoy the benefits walkin has to offer. If you are going to invest the time and effort in an exercise program to burn off calories, dont just add excess calories straight back into your body.

9. Walk before breakfast
If you are hungry, your body is craving food because its stored blood-sugar levels are running low. If you go for a walk in the morning before breakfast, your blood sugars are low, and you are more likely to use stored fat as fuel. You don't necessarily burn more calories, but you burn off a higher proportion of fat as fuel than when you walk after breakfast. The difference isn't large, but if burning stored fat is your goal - it all helps.
Research shows that in a fasted state, up to 50 percent mokre fat is used during cardiovascular exercise compared to people doing an identical amount of exercise shortly after eating.

Fuel your walk with wholesome food that gives you energy and actually helps burn fat. At the same time, cut back on high-calorie, low-nutrient foods and drinks that clog your fat cells.

10. Get stronger
As you get older, you naturally lose muscle tissue, which reduces your strength and energy levels, and this results in middle-age spread. Lifting weights can reverse this process - walking can't. Walking is a wonderful exercise, but it does very little strengthen your upper body and your abdominal core.
Lifting weights helps protect muscle tissue when you reduce your calorie rate and helps with weight and fat loss. The weight you life can be your own body weight, dumbbells, barbells, pin-loaded weight machines, or resistance in the form of rubber tubes, hydraulic machines, or even water. Adding weight to walking is a great addition to every walker' health and fitness routine.

[Edwin]

It is funny, but I started walking because I felt sorry for the dog! He had been neglected and was half starved. We fed him up, and I brought him in the house and had him sit at my feet. Then my granddaughter told me it was my job to break him to lead with the leash. I started walking him about 5 miles each day. He loves his walks and often takes me for a very fast walk, and I fell happy that he enjoys it so much. One of our daughters told me that I would live longer because of my walking, and I believe that. He knows when it is time for his walk. The other dog loves it too, although the other dog is not on a leash. The speed varies greatly as he stops to smell of things, and he stops and eats grass. He also marks a lot of bushes on his way. Then he takes me for a running walk. He is the most loveable dog and good natured. I just love him. He is the one in the picture.

[purex]

1. Look straight ahead, not down
2. Stay upright, don't lean forward
3. Breathe deeply and steadily
4. Pump your arms and bend your elbows at 90 degrees
5. Keep your stomach and your buttocks tucked in
6. Step onto your heel, then roll through onto the ball of your foot
7. Push forward off the toes of your back foot.

[purex]

1. using different types of walking
2. Training for an event or fun run
3. Walking on different surfaces
4. Inserting some interval training
5. Trying cross training
6. Walking on a treadmill
7. Walking with a partner or pet
8. Using gadgets, like a heart-rate monitor or pedometer

[Edwin]

It was raining off and on all day today, and so this evening I didn't take Scoobie for a walk. I don't think he wanted to walk in the rain either because I didn't hear any complaints from him. Earlier in the summer I brought his huge dog house here from our daughter's place. She told us that another dog died in that house and since then Scoobie would not go in it. When I set it up here against our house in the back yard, as soon as I got it set up Scoobie went in it and came out. That is the only time we saw him in it all summer. Carol told me that today she saw Scoobie coming out of the dog house. I guess he thought if it was going to rain he was going to go in the dog house. It was very heavy, and I rolled it on pipes to get it to my pickup truck. Then I tipped it up and leaned one end on the pickup tail gate. Then I lifted the other end and slid it in. I was very careful and didn't hurt myself moving it. Scoobie also has a huge kennel that I leaned two 4 by 8 sheets of plywood against on the corner so he could have shade, and he has used that all summer. Now he has his choice of which house he wants to go in. In spite of missing our walk this evening I picked and shoveled dirt where I am building the root cellar, so I got my exercise anyway.

[crisipicada]

There is a lot of benefit of walking. It is not only lower blood pressure but it is good for slimming. Want some proof? My sister weigh 71 kilos last June and within 3 months she loss 7 kilos. Accompany with diet, you will see the result. Take more water before meal just drink 2 glasses of water so that you will eat solid food a little. This is conditioning both body and mind. As much as you drink 8-10 glasses a day, it will help your metabolism works fast. YOu will have a good bowel movement every day if you always drink too much water. Remember that health is wealth.