Walk your way to better health

Beneficial Walk

Even a walk can be considered a good workout. It will benefit your heartand lungs and supply every portion of human body with oxygen the body needs. Alsothe circulation will be improved. Weight control can be achieved with a littlehelp from walking. Just to walk briskly for a mile can burn 100 calories, which meansthat you can burn 300 calories in just one hour. This number will be increasedfor 50% if you walk uphill. Stress will not be considerate on the joints.Walking will help the production of hormones that make us feel good, theproduction of endorphins that make us relaxed and anxiety free. This can bedone with only 45 minutes of walk. So, find comfortable shoes and listen to thenext six-week plan.

Plan

During the period from the first to the third week, the habit needs to be establish, which canbe done in 21 days. During the first week, you need to walk for 30 minutesduring this period and this needs to be done three times during this week. You candivide the walk in periods of time you like, but we recommend three walks lasting10 minutes each. When habit is established, increase the walking period to 15minutes. This needs to be done during the second and the third week, while during theperiod from fourth to sixth week, you need to increase the intensity, theduration and difficulty of the walk. During the fourth week, increase thewalking days to five during one week, but resume with the walks lasting 15minutes. During week five, walk for 45 minutes total in five days. You canbreak down this period as you like. In the sixth week, the speed and endurance mustbe increased. Try to increase the speed and intensity, but remain on the 45-minute long walk. When the sixth week passes, try to increase the walking time to one hour,but, you can break it down in a way you like. Remember that the week founddifficult needs to be repeated before moving to next week program. We recommend brisk walking. Brisk walking includes heavier breathing duringconversation, faster beating of the heart, slightly sweaty and warm feeling.

Tips

When walking, try to pull the abdomen in and keep the shoulders and neckrelaxed. Keep arms close to your body, look up and keep the chin up. Rememberto breathe deeply and take comfortable strides. They cannot be too long orshort. When walking, put your heel first on the ground, and make the step withthe use of buttock muscles, once the front foot area suffers the weight. Thenback foot needs to be rolled with toes touching the ground. Next, the foot islifted and the next step follows. Muscle tightness and aching can be avoidedwith simple stretches done after the walking, but remember to keep it brisk. Theheart rate needs to be in needed region in order to have the maximum effect. Inorder to find the required rate, subtract your age from the number 220 and thiswill give you the MHR or maximumheart rate. While walking, pulse must be in the region from 60 to 80 percent ofthe MHR.