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Fitness Walking: The Ultimate Exercise

April 9th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

Fitness walking is one of the best exercises for weight loss, your heart and to strengthen your leg muscles. It is an exercise that can be done anywhere, is easy to do and is low impact. The intensity of your fitness walking program can be modified depending upon your goals. A high intensity program is great to build cardiovascular capacity and endurance. A low intensity program is geared towards weight loss.

Before beginning any fitness walking program you need the following:

consult your doctor and have a physical examination;
buy a good pair of walking shoes;
buy a heart rate monitor; and
buy a water bottle.

A heart rate monitor should be worn while fitness walking to track the intensity of your workout. If your goal is weight loss, you will be walking at a lower heart rate than if your goal is to optimize cardiovascular capacity. Most people design a fitness walking program that accomplishes both weight loss and enhances aerobic capacity.

If your fitness walking goals include both weight loss and aerobic fitness, consider the following:

alternate days between your lower fat burning heart rate and your higher aerobic heart rate; or
exercise the first 15 minutes at your lower fat burning heart rate and the last 15 minutes at your higher aerobic heart rate.

The beauty of fitness walking is that you can adjust the intensity to suit your fitness level and the best way to do this is with a heart rate monitor. When you first start your fitness walking program, you may reach your target heart rate with minimal exertion. However the more you exercise, the more you will need to exert yourself to reach the same target heart rate. The fact that you need to work harder to reach your target heart rate is proof that your heart is becoming healthier.

Fitness Walking on a Treadmill

Fitness walking can either be done outside or on a treadmill. The advantages of using a treadmill is that:

you can exercise regardless of the weather;
it is easier to maintain a steady heart rate with a treadmill; and
the treadmilll can increase the incline without you having to find a hill to exercise on.

Most newer treadmills will automatically adjust the incline to maintain your target heart rate. All you need to do is program basic information into the treadmill and it takes care of the rest. It makes your fitness walking program very easy.

Although using a treadmill in your fitness walking program makes it easier to stay on track, it can become a little boring at times. In order to add variety you may want to:

modify the intensity from work out to workout;
alternate between walking outside and using a treadmill; and
exercise 20 minutes on a treadmill and use a stationary bike or different exercise for the remaining 20 minutes; etc.

A fitness walking program should contain variety to keep you interested and challenged. When your fitness improves, it may be harder to get your heart rate high enough on a treadmill without running. If this happens, consider working your upper body while walking on the treadmill. Working your upper body as part of your fitness walking program will enable you to accomplish the following:

increase your heart rate;
obtain a total body work out; and
burn more calories with the same amount of exercise time.

Use your imagination, there are many upper body exercises that you can include in your fitness walking program. You can swing your arms in front as you walk, you can use small dumb bells and alternate raising your arms from shoulder level to over your head, etc.

In order to obtain a weight loss or aerobic benefit from your fitness walking program, you should walk a mimimum of 30 minutes 2-3 times per week. If you are not used to exercising, start slow and increase as your heart becomes stronger. Remember that your heart rate monitor is the best way to track your fitness level and determine the proper intensity. Your heart rate measures how hard your heart is exercising. Before beginning a fitness walking program or any exercise program, consult your physician. Your doctor will advise you about your target exercise heart rate. Do it, but don’t over do it.

Fitness walking is easy and extremely beneficial. It is a great life long exercise for people of all ages. So get walking and stick with it.

To Your Health,

MyDietAndFitnessProgram.com