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Do you find yourself, like many people, in the position where you would like to take more exercise but, for a variety of reasons, you just never seem to get round to it? Certainly, there’s no shortage of reasons -or excuses – for not taking exercise. Lack of energy, not enough time, lack of specialized equipment – these are just a few examples of why it’s so often easier to miss out on exercise than to just get on and do it. Factor in the high cost of monthly gym membership fees and it’s no wonder that many of us get much less exercise than we would wish.

If there was a way to take exercise which didn’t need you to get all hot sweaty and out of breath, was easy to do and which didn’t require the use of any special equipment, then it would probably be a lot easier to motivate yourself to take exercise more often. If it was an exercise which could be slotted into your daily routine whenever it suited you best, then that would be ideal.

Fortunately, such a form of exercise does exist – although you may not have considered it. Walking is an activity that we all perform every day. It needs no training, expertise or special equipment. As long as you have a good, comfortable pair of shoes you’re all set. It’s also a very cost effective method of exercising – and you can slot it into your daily routine whenever you like.

The possible health benefits available as a result of walking on a regular basis read like the product description of the latest wonder drug. Walking can help to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke whilst increasing lung capacity. It helps to combat anxiety and depression, and it helps you to sleep better at night. It can lower the risk of certain forms of cancer. It boosts your energy level and leaves you feeling generally better overall. Recent research in the UK suggests that it may even be effective in combating Alzheimer’s disease. It helps to increase bone density, build muscle and to lose weight.

According to health professionals, in order to achieve all of these benefits, we should aim to take 10,000 steps a day. For the average person, that’s equivalent to a distance of between four and a half and five miles – although if you have a very long or very short stride length then this may vary somewhat.

It does sound like a long way, but you would probably be surprised at just how easy it actually is to achieve. Walking to work or school and leaving the car in the garage once or twice a week is a good start. Getting off the bus one or two stops early and finishing the last leg of your journey on foot is good. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator will help. When you do use your car, parking in a corner of the lot away from the entrance so that you have further to walk will boost your step count. There are plenty of ways to get to the 10,000 step figure. Every little helps.

You should exercise a little common sense and start out slowly, building up gradually only when you feel comfortable to do so. If you are over forty or have any medical conditions then you should get the advice of your doctor before you commence any new exercise program. However, as walking is a low intensity, low impact and low injury risk method of taking exercise, it should be suitable for the vast majority of people and, as discussed earlier, the potential health benefits are enormous.

Discover how Fitflops exercise shoes can boost the effectiveness of your walking exercise regime. They are specially engineered to increase the amount of work done by the lower body muscles when walking. Both women’s and men’s Fitflops are available in a wide range of colors and styles.

categories: health,fitness,weight loss,lose weight,exercise,workout,walking,uncategorized

If you want to lose weight, you must have a plan, a route map to success. This is called a program or programme. There are thousands of programs, but many of them are just plain batty. If they sound foolish, they probably are. Have you heard of the ‘cabbage water diet’? It sounds daft and it is. You cannot only drink cabbage water all your life!

Although there is a lot of nonsense talked about losing weight, there are some truths that play a role to play in almost any program you choose to follow. One of these truths is that it is better to eat many small meals during the day (about 5-6), than to go all day without eating and then gorging yourself at dinner in the evening. This is popularly called ‘grazing’.

Have you ever asked yourself why this might be so? Well, the fact is, that the average human body can only process about 250 calories an hour. If you eat more than that, you are probably overloading your digestive system. This is why it is important, because if your body cannot use all the calories that you give it, it will store them.

Your body can only use up what it needs to execute the task that it is active with, that is, what you are putting it through. If you are watching TV, a lot of of those 250 will be stored. If you are exercising, most will be burned up. It stores the remainder as body fat. Your body has learned through evolution that hard times will come, so it prepares for them. It is like us putting excess money in a savings account or people hoarding food if a bad winter is predicted.

However, these days in the West, we rarely face those lean times any longer. Therefore, that fat is never used up and we just keep adding to it until we decide, by choice, to limit our consumption of calories or increase our amount of exercise.

Given this information, what can we do with it? Well, if you were to want to lose weight, you should be consuming no more than 1,500 calories a day (or whatever your program tells you), so 1,500 divided by 250 is six. if you ate 250 calories every other hour, that would give you twelve hours.

Therefore, eating light but often would be a beneficial strategy or program to follow, because firstly, you are only providing your body with what it needs, when it requires it and secondly, you are able to better maintain a steady blood sugar level, which means that you level out the spikes and troughs you experience in a normal day’s cycle.

Two hundred and fifty calories does not seem a lot, but it is amazing what it will stretch too, if you take the time to investigate. It is true that you will have to severely restrict some foodstuffs, like bread, pasta, rice and potatoes, but whoever seriously thought that you could lose weight by eating that stuff anyway?

If you do not have time to cook several times every day, look in your supermarket. There are loads of ’250 calorie’ microwave meals. You don’t want to eat that? I can’t blame you. so get a good cookbook, which shows calorie content. You are at work all day? OK, eat some fruit, but choose wisely. It can be done, it only takes a little determination and planning.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with lose weight programs. If you have an interest in losing weight, too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

categories: diet,health,fitness,exercise,cardio,advice,family,men’s issues,women’s issues,recipes,supplements,nutrition,outdoors,other

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to be slimmer just to have a sexier body. Many people have moulded their bodies to make them look more healthy and more desirable. However, there is no way to attain this new look in a day of two. The problem is that most people do not want to wait, they want it now.

This can lead to these people making rather rash and, it has top be said, rather silly decisions. They are not willing to wait and they are not willing to work for what they want. This is why so many people turn to rapid weight loss diets. Some ‘guru’ brings out a new fad diet and a good proportion of the ‘I want it now’ crowd jump on the band wagon. Only to be disappointed again within the year or less.

Speed diets or rapid weight loss diets tend to put out great advertising copy that is very hard to resist. However, all diets, no matter which one you choose, Weight Watchers, Atkins or fad diet, depend on overweight people making lifestyle changes in order for them to work permanently.

There is a very apposite saying: if you always do what you always did, then you will always get what you always got. That says it all. You can lose weight with all but the silliest of diets, but if you go back to your old ways when you hit your target weight, you MUST slowly, but gradually creep back to your old weight.

If you give your body more calories than it needs, it will store them for when it does need them. The problem is that that day never comes for too many people, because they never exert themselves. This is especially true of fad diets like the ‘cabbage water’ diet. Yes, you will lose weight on it, but you would lose weight by fasting whatever you did. For a while, and then you might get sick. For a diet to work, it has to be flexible and enjoyable enough for you to be able to stick with it for the rest of your life. Make no mistake, dieting is long-haul.

Many rapid weight loss programs actually only squeeze the water out of you. Just like a wet sponge. But a good dieter maintains his or her grip on that sponge, not letting it soak up water again. The problem with short term dieting, is that you let go of the sponge underwater.

This is why serial dieters first lose weight and are happy; then finish dieting, go back to their old weight and become disheartened. In that state of depression they are suckers for the advertisers of the next latest craze diet. In other words, they are being manipulated and literally squeezed dry, but of their cash too.

These silly rapid weight loss programs also include fat loss pills. They are not making you lose fat, well, maybe a tiny amount gets washed out with all the surplus water you are carrying. They are only diuretics under another name. How many pills would I sell if I called them diuretics? How many more would I sell if I called them miracle fat loss pills?

Type the word diuretic into a engine and find out more about them. They are all around you in mild healthy forms. A diuretic will essentially cause your body to lose more fluid than was in the diuretic. Tea is a diuretic, for example.

This list of these dopey dieting aids to rapid weight loss goes on and on, but someone must be buying them and you can bet your bottom dollar that it is the sad, depressed dieter who let go of the sponge.

Slimming soap! Slimming soap is being advertised as being a rare Eastern remedy for corpulence. Well, let me tell you, I live in the East and I have never seen it here. Asians are slim because they do a lot of physical work and do not come under the pressure to eat junk food that Westerners do, although that situation is changing quickly too.

Magnetic weight loss earrings, I ask you! Even being drunk without a present for your wife ten minutes before Christmas Day is not a good enough excuse to fall for this one, surely? The advertisers say that the secret of this set of earrings is that they are magnetic.

Well, if you believe this, why not get a pair of $1 children’s toy magnets or even a couple of fridge magnets and put one in each hip pocket? Two? Well, after all, you would not want to lose weight from only one side, would you? You would be lop sided.

Just remember, when you are looking for a rapid weight loss diet: there ain’t one ( that will work for life). If you are putting on weight, then your lifestyle is wrong and it is up to you alone to change it.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with how to lose weight online. If you have an interest in losing weight too, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

The many advantages of walking as a way to take exercise are being recognised by more and more people. It’s a low impact, low injury risk workout that you already know how to do – in fact you do it every day without thinking about it. You don’t need any special equipment and you can do it wherever and whenever it suits you. Walk in the street, in the park, on a treadmill – slot it into your schedule whenever it suits you best. It’s also an exercise which is suited to a wide range of people – that’s probably why it has such a low drop out rate.

It’s especially effective if you’re trying to lose weight. Of course, controlling your calorie intake – the amount that you eat and drink – is important, but dieting alone is not an efficient way to shed pounds. If you combine an element of exercise with dietary control your results will be better. This is not solely because you burn calories by exercising, but also because regular exercise actually increases your metabolic rate – the rate at which you burn calories. What this means is that, even if you’re not exercising – sitting and watching TV or chatting on the phone for example – you will burn calories at a faster rate and this will help you to lose weight.

The benefits to be had from walking are numerous. It can increase your lung capacity, lower the risk of heart disease and stroke and also help to lower your blood pressure level. It can lower bad cholesterol levels whilst raising good cholesterol levels, reduce the risk of developing two types of diabetes and even reduce the risk of developing certain forms of cancer. It will help you to sleep better at night and is effective in combating anxiety and depression. It will give you more energy and you will feel less fatigued throughout the day.

That’s a lengthy list of benefits and should be more than enough to get you motivated. And if you’re keen to get started then don’t forget, there’s absolutely no need for any special equipment. All you need is a good pair of comfortable shoes and you’re all set.

Although not strictly necessary, you might find that a pedometer is one piece of equipment that you would find useful. It will help you to stay motivated by recording your progress and displaying it in terms of the number of steps taken, the distance covered or the number of calories burned – whatever is most interesting for you.

You should seek the advice of your doctor before commencing any new exercise programme. It’s also worth remembering that whilst walking may be a low injury risk way to take exercise, it is still exercise. A few stretches before you begin – repeated when you’re done – will help to avoid any strains or sprains and will ensure that you get the maximum benefit from your walking workout.

Discover how Fitflops exercise shoes can boost the effectiveness of your walking workout. Use an Omron pedometer to monitor your progress and help you to stay motivated.

When it comes to living a long and healthy life, there are two necessary ingredients: diet and fitness. While some believe that they are inseparable, nothing could be further from the truth. It is quite possible to have a perfectly healthy diet with deplorable fitness habits. It is equally possible to be physically fit with less than perfect eating habits.

There’s a clever little line in the Jimmy Buffet lyrics “Fruitcakes” when his ‘lady’ is complaining: “I treat my body like a temple, You treat yours like a tent”

I can’t help thinking about this line whenever I think about all the people around the world who are on these garbage in, garbage out diet regimens hoping to achieve the weight loss triumph of those who are promoting the products.

To be totally honest, it is possible to shed pounds through dieting alone. It is difficult but possible. It is also possible to be physically fit and still have a few extra pounds. To a large part, we are what we eat. If we follow a high fat low fibre diet our bodies are going to lack the fuel required to burn the fat. At the same time if we are not providing our bodies with the tools it requires to create muscle it does not matter how many weights we lift.

When it comes to diet and fitness, the best results are achieved when they are combined together rather. Use your fitness routine to burn surplus calories and use your diet in order to provide your body with the nutrients and fuel it requires to build muscle.

A pound of muscle takes up less space on the body than a pound of fat. Pound for pound, I would much prefer mine be composed of muscle than fat. Dieting alone does not build muscle and that is something you would do well to remember.

You should also realize that as you are building muscle you may be shedding inches while not showing a great deal of progress on the scale. It is very important that you keep this in mind throughout the weight loss process. Do not measure your progress by the scales alone or you will observe deceptive results.

The problem is that far too many people do just this, grow frustrated and give up when they are in point of fact making progress. Do not allow yourself to be a victim of the scales. Look in the mirror, try on your tight pants, and measure your waistline. Measure your success by how you feel after climbing a flight of stairs not by the scales.

By incorporating exercise into your diet routine you are also enabling your body to burn off any extra calories you may have consumed during the day. This means that if you want to have a small ‘cheat’ during your day, you can make up for it by burning a few more calories than normal in the evening. This is not something that should happen often but an occasional occurrence is not going to make or break your diet.

You should also consider dieting and fitness as a hand and glove type of relationship. They fit together. Diet and exercise when combined can achieve fantastic weight loss results for those who take them both sincerely.

The thing to remember is that neither works well alone and neither will work unless you are willing to do the work. You must make this a priority in your life in order to achieve the best possible results.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with why can’t I lose weight. If you have an interest in losing weight, please go over to our website now at Why Can’t I Lose Weight?

categories: diet,exercise,health,fitness,recreation,sports,muscle building,running,self help,happiness,other,uncategorized,men’s issues,women’ issues

How often you meet with your trainer is probably going to change over time based on things like schedule, your needs at a particular time and finances. As a personal trainer for 10 years, I have clients that I meet with as little as once a month and clients that I see as often as 4 times a week. Sometimes people have an idea of how often they want to meet with me and other times they are looking to me for guidance in making this decision. I will make suggestions and usually we end up figuring it out together. While you’re trying to figure out what’s right for you, it’s important to consider things like your level of experience and your patterns of success and failure.

The less experienced you are, the more often I recommend meeting with a trainer especially in the beginning. Maybe three times a week for 4 weeks. After you’ve learned enough of the basics you could start to see the trainer less frequently. Here’s why: People that don’t know much about exercise and form have a lot to learn and that’s what the trainer is there for. In the beginning I suggest doing all of your weight workouts supervised by a trainer until your form is really good. I call it my ‘high five of approval’. I will not send a client off to do weight lifting exercises on their own until I am 100% confident that their form is great. Otherwise, the result is that they may do it wrong and end up with an injury. Exercising on your own is a decision that you and your trainer should make together. Create momentum in the beginning.

Working with a trainer frequently in the beginning will help to create the momentum you need to get you over the ‘stage 1′ hurdle. Also, if you’re a beginner you have a lot to learn. A trainer will show you how to do things correctly so you don’t end up with an injury. As you feel more comfortable with the exercises and as your trainer becomes confident that you are doing everything correctly, you can expect that you will become more confident and be able to work out on your own.

If you’ve been working out on your own and following the same routine for a long time I suggest meeting with a trainer once a month to change things up a bit. Maybe you’ve heard about ‘confusing your body’? In exercise, one of the most ineffective things you can do is repeat the same thing day in day out for weeks, months or even years. It’s not as uncommon as you might think for someone to do the same exercises for 10 years or more! Don’t fall into this. By changing your routine frequently you are confusing your body, challenging it and forcing it to adjust its response. This is a good thing. If you find yourself falling into a rut, getting bored or too comfortable have a trainer give you some new exercises and mix it up once a month.

Of course another big part of this decision is how much you can afford. I suggest figuring out your budget and telling your trainer what you can spend. Then ask your trainer what they think would be the best way to spread out the sessions. I always encourage my beginner clients to do more sessions in the begging and then start spreading the gap. So, let’s say my beginner client can do 10 sessions. I would do 3 appointments the first 2 weeks, 2 appointments the following week and 1 appointment for the last 2 weeks. Here’s why: Practicing repeatedly with your trainer will ensure that you know the correct way to exercise using good form so that you won’t hurt yourself. Also, it’s very important in the beginning of any exercise program to get off to a good start. Meeting your trainer frequently will help you gain the momentum you need to carry you through a successful long-term program.

Remember that the frequency of your training is not set in stone. Sometimes it may be more frequently, other times less frequently depending on what’s going on in your life. Your trainer will always work with you to do what is appropriate at any given time. If you’re lucky enough to have a trainer that you really enjoy and that’s helping you to get the results you want, they’re probably going to be in your life for a long time!

Picking the correct Denver Personal Trainer will make or break your goal to get in shape. We can be your fitness confidant and create a individual workout plan that is best for you. Visit www.filettifitness.com today for more information.

Body building is about a lot more than simply turning yourself into the next (1980s version of) Arnold Scwarzenegger. Common society views body building as little more than a way to grow grotesquely large muscles. The simple truth is that body building is all about strengthening your muscles and then building them up to give you a “prettier” physique. There is a lot more to it than “getting ripped.” It is about getting healthy. If you are interested in starting a body building routine, here are some tips to help you out. It is very important to remember that “getting stacked” is not the primary goal of body building; the primary goal is getting healthy.

Have someone teach you the correct way to breathe. Proper breathing is essential when you are doing body building exercises. Holding your breath is a bad idea. Oxygen is important for keeping muscles healthy so you want to take in as much as you can. Use your diaphragm to help you breathe correctly instead of your lungs. Breathing with your lungs makes it harder to work the muscles in your chest because your chest will be expanded as you breathe. When you breathe with the diaphragm you are able to get the correct amount of oxygen without having your chest expand.

Body building relies quite a bit upon proper protein intake. It is very important that you get enough protein so that your muscles will be able to build back up correctly after you work out. Body builders are well known for using protein powders to help them make sure that they take in enough protein calories to keep their bodies healthy. When you are first tarting the sport this probably won’t be as important to you. Eating a well balanced diet should be all you need to do when you are new to the sport. If, however, you find yourself really enjoying body building and you want to intensify the duration and frequency of your workouts, upping your protein intake is a good idea (it will help compensate for the needs of your muscles). You should ask your doctor about the different types of protein powder.

See your doctor regularly. Your doctor can help you make sure that you are getting the work out you need while still keeping your muscles in check. A doctor will be able to help you take steps to prevent causing yourself accidental harm when you work out while still making sure that the workouts are having the effect on your body that they should be having. A doctor can also help identify problems as they develop and keep them from getting out of hand. At the very least you should see a doctor when you start your body building to make sure you take the right approach to your new fitness routine.

Anybody can do body building. It is a great way to get in good shape and focus on your health. Some people think of body building more as a career than a hobby! You don’t have to be quite that dedicated to the sport but if you keep at it you might find out that you really like the way it makes your body look and feel. If you set reachable goals and use your common sense you should be able to greatly improve your health with body building!

To discover added recommendations on the correct way to Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, make certain to take a look at my personal evaluation about Lose Waist Fat.

A great many people avoid taking exercise as they suppose that it will be too much physical effort for them. It’s a bit of a vicious circle where it’s easy to imagine that you need to already have a certain level of fitness and endurance capability in order to get really fit. When you think about it, it’s no wonder that many of us make a mental link between getting fit and getting sweaty and out of breath.

Conversely, many people find it difficult to believe that a low impact, low intensity workout – based around activity which most people do every day without thinking about it – could deliver very significant health benefits and help you to make significant improvements to your overall level of health and fitness. However, that is precisely what walking, a low impact form of exercise which requires no special equipment, expertise or training, can do for you.

And when you take a look at the list of health benefits which regular walking can provide, your sense of disbelief is only likely to grow still further.Walking can help to reduce your blood pressure level. It can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke whilst simultaneously improving lung capacity. It can release endorphins and help to combat depression, make you feel more energetic and help you to sleep better. It can be effective against different forms of cancer. Recent research in the UK suggests that it may even help to stave off Alzheimer’s disease. It can raise your metabolic rate and help you to lose weight.

It reads like an advert for a miracle drug or an expensive health supplement. It’s hardly surprising that it’s difficult to credit. It’s also worth noting that you can get started on a walking fitness routine without any special equipment – apart from a comfortable pair of shoes that is. It is also, to all intents and purposes, free. There are no costly monthly gym membership fees to pay. Not only do you save money, but you can fit walking into your day whenever it suits you best.

Health professionals seem to agree that we should be targeting 10,000 steps a day on a regular basis in order to get the health benefits previously discussed. That equivalent to just under five miles for most people, although it depends upon your stride length somewhat. It sounds like a fair old distance – but it’s easier to achieve than you think. Walk to work and leave the car at home. Take the stairs instead of the lift. Get off the bus a stop before your destination and walk the last leg of your journey. These are just a few examples of ways to increase your daily step count – there are plenty more, and they all add up.

If you haven’t exercised for a while, if you have any medical conditions, or if you’re over 40 years of age, then be sure to take medical advice before you start any new fitness programme. However, as long as you’re sensible and start off slowly, walking will, in all probability, be extremely good for your health. You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you both see and feel the results.

Discover how Fitflops exercise shoes can boost the effectiveness of your walking exercise program. They are specially engineered to increase the amount of work done by the lower body muscles when walking. Both women’s and men’s Fitflops are available in a wide range of colors and styles.

When 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.

Having established what your daily step count is (take an average over a few days), you should actively look for opportunities to wipe out any gap between that value and the 10,000 step per day target. There are numerous different ways to do this – but be sensible and start slowly – there’s no need to do everything at once.

If you have enough time in your daily routine to fit in a dedicated walk then that’s ideal of course. However, if you can’t manage this, then there are many other ways to increase your daily step count. At lunchtime take a ten or fifteen minute stroll around the block instead of sitting in front of your computer. Get off the bus one or two stops early and finish your journey on foot. Leave your car at home and walk now and again – or, if that’s not possible, then park your car in the far corner of the parking lot so that you have further to walk to the entrance.

Take advantage of modern technology and walk around whilst talking on your mobile phone. A fifteen minute telephone conversation can let you fit in an extra 1,000 or 1,500 steps. There are plenty of other opportunities to fit walking into your day – and it all adds up.

If you have any medical conditions, if you haven’t taken regular exercise for a while, or if you’re over forty years old then it would be a good idea to talk to your doctor prior to embarking on any new fitness program. However, walking is a low injury risk, low impact form of exercise which will, as long as you are sensible and build up slowly, provide you with many positive health benefits. You will be feeling better, enjoying increased energy levels and losing weight before you know it – and you won’t need a pedometer or a set of scales to tell you how well you’re doing. You will both feel the results and see them as well.

Boost the effectiveness of your walking workout with Fitflops fitness shoes. They’re scientifically designed to increase the amount of work your lower body muscles perform during normal walking activity. Both women’s and men’s Fitflops are available in a wide range of colors and styles.

categories: weight loss,lose weight,exercise,fitness,workout,fitness equipment,health

Regular physical exercise – taken on a frequent and consistent basis – is recognised as a major factor in improving health levels and lowering the probability of – or avoiding completely – numerous health problems and diseases. We are probably all aware of this – however, it can still be very hard to summon up the motivation to exercise on a regular basis. For many people, the perception of exercise is that it is physically exhausting, boring and costly (membership fees for gyms can be surprisingly high). It can also be difficult to find the time to fit exercise into your daily routine.

Walking is a form of exercise that is carried out by most people on a daily basis. It is a very important factor in determining the general health and fitness level of any particular individual. It walking is carried out on a regular basis, then it can deliver a great many health benefits. It has the potential to lower blood pressure and to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. It will help to combat both depression and anxiety. Walking will help you to sleep better, and you will have more energy and feel less fatigued during the day. It can reduce the probability of contracting certain forms of cancer. It will help you lose weight and build muscle.

There’s no need for any special equipment to start walking – all you need is a comfortable pair of shoes. You can also fit walking into your daily routine whenever it’s most convenient for you. If you can walk for half an hour a day, 3 or 4 times weekly, then you will quickly begin to see – and feel – the benefits. If you can slowly work up to 10,000 steps daily – the equivalent of 5 miles for most people – you will really see a difference. You will look better and feel better.

If, after slowly increasing the time and distance that you walk for each day, you feel that you might like to get a little extra from your walking workout, then you could consider Nordic walking. Nordic walking is a relatively recent innovation which was started in Finland by skiers who needed a method of keeping their fitness level up during the summer and a way to get ready for the winter skiing season. Basically it’s walking with modified ski poles. It’s just like skiing – but minus the skis (and the snow).

Nordic walking has two main added advantages compared to normal walking. Firstly, it makes more use of the upper body, encouraging the use of muscles which would not be engaged whilst walking normally. Secondly, it decreases the amount of load on lower body muscles and joints.

These two factors result in even further benefits in comparison with conventional walking. There is a 20 to 40% increase in the rate of energy expenditure – and the additional upper body movement promotes agility and flexibility.There is less stress in the lower body muscles and joints as a consequence of reduced lower body loading. For some walkers, the use of poles might have safety benefits – and this could allow people recovering from injury or illness to get a higher intensity workout than would otherwise be possible.

Whether you go for Nordic or conventional walking, the prospective health benefits are very worthwhile for you. Before you start out on any new exercise program you should seek the advice of your doctor – especially if you haven’t exercised for a while or if you have any medical conditions. However, if you’re sensible and start off gradually, then you will be able to gain some very real and significant health benefits by walking.

See how Fitflops exercise shoes can boost the effectiveness of your walking workout. Try using an Omron pedometer to monitor your progress and help you to stay motivated.

categories: walking,exercise,health,fitness,workout,weight loss,lose weight