Posts Tagged ‘walking’

A large number of people steer clear of taking regular exercise as they believe that it will be to exhausting for them. It’s almost as if they believe that they must have a certain minimum level of fitness in order to get in shape. It’s no surprise that many of us associate getting fit with high energy fitness routines and getting hot, sweaty and out of breath.

Using similar logic, many people find it hard to imagine that a low intensity, low impact, low injury risk workout could deliver very significant health benefits, help you to lose weight and get in much better shape. However, that’s exactly what walking – an activity which requires no special equipment, training or expertise, and one which we all do on a daily basis – can do for you if you do it on a regular basis.

When you consider the numerous health benefits that walking offers, your sense of disbelief is only likely to grow. Walking can help to significantly reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke whilst improving the operational efficiency of the lungs. It can help to bring down your blood pressure level. It can help you to sleep better, boost your overall energy levels and even help to fight depression. It can help to reduce the risk of contracting certain forms of cancer. Recent studies in the UK even seem to suggest that it may be effective in fighting Alzheimer’s disease. There’s no doubt that it can help you to lose weight and get in shape.

Looking at that list you would be forgiven for thinking that it was an advert for some expensive new dietary supplement or even the latest miracle drug. No wonder that it’s difficult to credit. It’s also worth noting that – other than a comfortable pair of shoes – you don’t require any special equipment to get started on a walking exercise routine. It’s also a very cost effective option – there are no costly monthly gym membership fees to pay. You also have the convenience of being able to fit it into your day whenever it suits you best.

Most health professionals seem to suggest that should be aiming for 10,000 steps a day on a regular basis in order to achieve the health benefits previously mentioned. That’s equivalent to somewhere between four and a half and five miles for most people, depending upon stride length. It sounds like a long way – but it’s more achievable than you may think. Walk to work and leave the car in the garage. Use the stairs instead of the elevator from time to time. Get off the bus a couple of stops before your final destination and walk the rest of the way. 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 are over forty years old, if you have any medical conditions, or if you just haven’t exercised for some time, then it would be wise to seek your doctor’s advice and opinion before you launch any new fitness regime. However, as long as you start off slowly and build up over time, walking will improve your health and fitness levels. What’s more important you will feel much better and look better.

If you find it difficult to stay motivated, then using an Omron pedometer which will monitor your progress and display results in terms of steps taken, distance covered or calories burned, might be effective. You can also take advantage of the latest advances in exercise footwear design by using specially engineered shoes – such as Fit flops sandals – which boost the amount of work your lower body muscles do whilst walking normally. It effectively raises the efficiency of your walking workout.

Losing weight is an ambition which is shared by a great many people. Unfortunately it conjures up images of starving yourself on the latest fad diet or getting hot, sweaty and out of breath down at the gym. Pounding the pavement or doing laps of the track in the rain is another image. None of these options are especially appealing to the vast majority of people.

Weight loss – and a plethora of other health benefits – can be obtained simply by performing a form of exercise which most of us do every day without so much as a second thought. Walking is a low impact, low injury risk way to exercise which is a great solution for many people – at a variety of different fitness levels and across a wide age band. It’s ideal for anyone recovering from an illness or injury and is a great way to lose weight post childbirth.

The thing about walking is that it’s a natural activity. There’s no need for any special equipment, training or expertise. Anyone can do it – whenever they feel like it and whenever it suits them best. You can slot it into your daily schedule whenever it’s most convenient for you. There’s no need to fit in a special trip to the gym – which will also save you money on membership fees as well as time.

The important thing to obtaining all the health benefits and losing weight by walking is to take a consistent approach. Relatively low level exercise, consistently undertaken on a regular basis, is infinitely better than sporadic periods of high intensity exercise – and the risk of sprains, strains and other injuries is also very much lower. Walking for just thirty minutes a day will soon produce results – as long as it’s done on a consistent basis.

If you can slowly work up to 10,000 steps a day on a regular basis, you will be surprised (pleasantly) at just how quickly you begin to feel the benefit and actually see the results. For the average person, 10,000 steps equates to a distance of approximately 5 miles. That may sound like a long way – but it really is much easier to achieve than you may think.

Another great thing about walking is the fact that you don’t require any special kit. All that you need to get started is a good, comfortable pair of shoes. Whilst it’s not strictly necessary, you may consider getting hold of a pedometer to be a good idea. You can pick these up for less than $ 10 these days – even an Omron pedometer, which is the best known brand on the market, can be found starting at just over $ 10 – although the higher end models do cost a little bit more. They will help you to keep track of your progress and are able to display results in terms of the number of steps taken, the number of calories used or the total distance covered. It might help you to stay motivated and encourage you to find other ways to include walking as part of your normal routine.

It’s also worth checking out the latest developments in fitness footwear. Brands like Skechers Shape Ups,Reebok Easy Tones and Fitflops are designed to increase the amount of work done by the lower body muscles during normal walking activity. This will help to raise the efficiency of your walking to lose weight workout.

We live in an increasingly sedentary society – as a general rule we get considerably less physical exercise than would have been considered normal in the past. Widely available motorised transport has been a factor, as has the fact that, for many of us, work consists of sitting in front of a computer screen for eight hours a day. Consider also the fact that food is, in relative terms at least, cheaper than it’s ever been and both widely and instantly available and it’s hardly surprising that a lot of us aren’t in as good shape as we might like to be.

Sadly, our numerous labour saving gadgets, improved transport systems and computers don’t appear to have given us any additional leisure time in which to pursue activities which might make up for our low level of physical activity during our normal daily routine. It’s hardly surprising that, after a long day at the office, a commute and completion of a few domestic duties, many people don’t have either the energy or the time to go for a quick jog or to fit in a trip to the gym. It’s a vicious circle and one that can be hard to break.

And that’s precisely the situation that Marcia Kilgore found herself in. She was an ex-personal fitness trainer – so there’s no doubt that she knew the value of taking regular exercise – who just couldn’t find sufficient time in her busy daily routine to take as much exercise as she would have liked to. Rather than simply accepting the situation, Ms Kilgore took steps, quite literally, to do something about it.

Working together with the London South Bank University (LSBU), she developed the concept for a special range of exercise footwear which, thanks to a specially engineered sole, would increase the time for which the lower body muscles were active during normal walking activity. Independent testing at LSBU and the UK’s Salford University have shown that Ms Kilgore’s range of shoes – known as Fitflops – increase the time for which the lower body muscles are in use by up to 16% – when compared to walking in conventional shoes.

The net result of this is that wearers of Fitflops can trim their butt and tone up their legs just by walking around as they would be doing anyway. In addition to the various scientific tests, anecdotal evidence from users also suggests that other benefits, such as reduced joint pain and improved posture may be achievable. The Fitflops range of shoes has also received a seal of acceptance from the American Podiatric Medical Association.

Originally the Fitflops range started life as a collection of sandals – but this has now grown to incorporate boots, slippers and clogs. You can choose from a great selection of colours and styles – most of which don’t look anything like exercise shoes, so no-one need know that you are benefiting from a free workout while you walk. If you are one of the many who struggle to find time to exercise, then walking to lose weight whilst wearing Fitflops might just be a good choice for you to get what is effectively a free lower body workout just by walking around as you would normally be doing as part of your daily routine anyway.

There are any number of different types of fitness footwear to choose from – general trainers, squash shoes, tennis shoes, running shoes – there’s pretty much something for everyone. Clearly it’s important to pick the right type in order to maximise your enjoyment of whatever sporting activity you pursue and also to reduce the risk of injury.

The latest improvement in fitness footwear is shoes which actually boost the effectiveness of your workout – or which give you a workout for your lower body just by wearing them when you walk around normally. As a rule, these feature a specially engineered sole – often with a curved shape – and employ carefully selected materials in their manufacture.

Masai Barefoot Technology (MBT), Skechers Shape Ups and Fitflops are all examples of this new model of fitness footwear. They all claim to increase the duration for which the muscles of the lower body are active during normal walking – something which, it is said, will help to tone up the wearer’s leg and buttock muscles. Considering that the average person takes around 10,000 paces every day, you can understand how even a relatively minor increase in lower body muscle activity whilst walking would have a positive effect.

It’s frequently suggested that this type of footwear reproduces the feeling of walking barefoot on soft sand. If you’ve ever experienced this for any length of time then you’ll know that it fels more tiring than walking on a hard surface – so it does seem to make sense that this may help to increase the effectiveness of your walking workout routine. As well as “making sense” instinctively, a number of scientific tests have been conducted which have shown that such shoes can genuinely increase muscle activity. Anecdotal user evidence also seems to suggest that the benefits are, for some users at least, real.

Reebok Easy Tones are the latest addition to the range of super efficient exercise shoes. These don’t feature a curved sole, unlike many of the other shoes in this category. They are designed to keep you ever so slightly off balance – which produces extra muscle activity as you subconsciously compensate to retain your balance. This imbalance theory is also used by Fitflops – by means of their superbly titled “microwobbleboard” technology – but Fitflops also use a curved sole.

As a rule, these shoes usually cost no more than normal fitness footwear and are available in a wide choice of colors and styles. Many of them don’t even look like conventional exercise shoes but are styled more like normal boots, clogs and flip flops. Whether you decide to use them as a means of boosting the efficiency of your exercise routine or if you just want to wear them whilst walking around normally, there’s probably going to be a style to suit you. If you haven’t taken exercise for a while then it’s probably wise to break your new shoes in slowly. Try wearing them for just a couple of hours a day, even if you’re just walking about normally. You can gradually build up the time you wear them for over a couple of weeks.

A lot of people seem to put off exercising on a regular basis because they think that it might be too strenuous. Others may just be concerned that they aren’t fit enough to get into shape, whilst others may suffer from medical conditions that mean that they can’t really over exert themselves. Many will simply find the idea of a visit to the gym and getting all hot and sweaty an unpleasant proposition. Whatever the reasons, and there’s no shortage of them, it can be very hard to summon up the motivation to exercise – despite the fact that we all know that we really should.

However, there is one type of exercise which the vast majority of people perform daily without even thinking about it. It doesn’t need any special equipment and won’t leave you panting and out of breath. Walking is a fantastic way to get a low impact workout which has a very low injury risk and which can be undertaken by most people. You can fit it into your daily schedule as and when it suits you and there are no expensive membership fees to pay either.

There are a great many health benefits to walking as a method of taking exercise. It reduces the risk of heart problems and stroke, it reduces blood pressure, increases lung capacity and strengthens the heart. It builds muscle and, due to the fact that it is a weight bearing exercise, it also increases bone density. It burns calories and will, if carried out regularly, lead to weight loss. Walking to lose weight is very effective. It can even help to combat depression and anxiety and reduce the risk of contracting certain forms of cancer.

It’s a lengthy, and for many people, extremely desirable list of health benefits – which can be obtained with very little effort and without the need to turn into a professional athlete overnight. Walking for as little as 30 minutes daily can rapidly produce visible results when carried out consistently. If you can eventually build up to something around 10,000 steps a day – which is, for most people, equivalent to 5 miles – then you will soon start to lose pounds, shed inches from your waistline, feel better overall and have more energy.

The important thing is consistency. Start off gradually and try to increase your distance covered with time – and only when you are ready to do so. Leave the car at home and walk to work, school, the shops. Walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator every second time. Relatively minor changes rapidly make a big difference. The only thing that you really need in order to start walking is a good pair of comfortable shoes – although you can now find specially engineered training shoes like Fitflops sandals today which will maximize the effectiveness of your walking exercise. However, you might consider the purchase of an inexpensive pedometer – they start at less than $10 – to be a wise investment. You might very well find that tracking your progress – in terms of the number of steps taken, the distance covered or the number of calories burned – will help to keep you to stay motivated.

If you’re over 40, if you haven’t taken any regular exercise for some time, or if you suffer from any long term medical problems, then you should definitely talk to your doctor before embarking upon any new exercise routine. With that being said, as long as you use a little common sense and begin gradually, regular walking exercise has the potential to provide you with many health benefits – including weight reduction, extra energy and, most important of all, a general feeling of well-being.

An entire new class of shoes is now being designed to help us lead a more fit life. Exercise or wellness shoes can improve your posture, eliminate cellulite, relieve lower body agony, and tone your legs simply by walking in them. At least, thatis what the corporations are informing us, and with promises like that, we all just have to get a pair and see for ourselves.

These new walking sandals are everywhere, and Reebok is the latest and most plain manufacturer to jump on this very profitable bandwagon, with their commercials showing a super-slim model with a nicely toned rear and legs. Reebok’s EasyTone guarantees’better legs and a better butt with each step.’ Their EasyTone sole technology mimics walking on sand, and they claim wearing these shoes will improve the muscle tone in your calves, hamstrings, and glutes by as much as twenty-eight %.

FitFlop was one of first to tout the exercise powers of its shoes. Its trademark is ‘Get a workout while you walk’ and they’re serious about it with a growth away from the original flip flops into a full line of shoes, boots, and even house slippers. FitFlop shoes contain a state of the art Micro-wobbleboard which increases muscle tension and tones and firms you while you walk. Read the testimonials on the FitFlop site and youwill be hunting out the best place to buy them! Women discussed feeling like they’d worked out for hours after wearing them, and others reported reduced foot, back, and leg discomfort.

Masai Barefooted Technology ( MBT ) makes a different sort of exercise shoe. Wearing MBT shoes can give masses of excellent results, including reduced body pain, toning and buttressing, improving posture and helping with other physical infirmities. These shoes have built-in pressure distribution mechanisms which create steady unsteadiness in your feet, which in turn causes your muscles to efficiently counteract that slight motion and tone you up in the method.

See online: discount MBT shoes

Earth Shoes makes shoes with negative heel technology that helps to perfectly align your body for great posture, straightforward breathing, and no back stiffness. The Earth shoes for women new trademark is ‘Burn more calories with every step’ and their advertising claims that you burn 4 times as many calories wearing these shoes than you do wearing ordinary shoes.

Skechers Shape Ups appear similar to MBT shoes, with a rocker bottom that is terribly pronounced on some styles. Skechers appeal typically to younger people and Shape Ups are no exception, and their novel looks might not be for some people. They promise to tighten up your muscles and promote healthy weight management while you walk or workout with them.

Chung Shi one-upped everyone else with the introduction of their exercise shoes. They guarantee to ‘work legs 257% harder’ than standard shoes. They also claim an inbuilt Pilates system that employs a protected bar in the center, and afifteen degree curved sole. What all of this means is that the shoes don’t sit flat, and your body must continually adjust to re-balance itself. There is also evidence that these shoes cause much less impact on ankle and knee joints, so they are excellent for those recovering from joint wounds.

While the jury is out on the usefulness of these shoes, it appears that one just wants to try them for two weeks to decide if they live up to their claims.