Walking Program: What you need before you begin ?

All you require for your walking program is

• Comfortable well fitting shoes designed for walking
• Loose fitting comfortable clothes as walking raises your body temperature.

Walking: Let’s Get Started

Walking beginners can control their workouts by controlling their speed and distance of walking. Here are a few tips to help beginning walkers get started:
1) Begin with a short distance stroll, say for 5 minutes and then gradually increase the distance.
2) Walk at a comfortable pace without focusing on speed of walking. Pay attention to having a good posture, relaxing shoulders and keeping head firmly lifted on shoulders.
3) Breathe deeply and swing your arms naturally. If you are going uphill or downhill, go slow.
4) Be sure you are comfortable and can talk easily while walking. If you feel out of breath, then you are walking too fast.
5) Once you are comfortable walking a few miles with ease, then concentrate on lengthening your stride or speed.

Some key benefits of a regular brisk walking exercise program

• Makes you feel more energetic and improves outlook towards life.
• Improves digestion and stabilizes appetite.
• Burns energy, helps in weight loss or weight control.
• Increases body flexibility and strengthens bone health.
• Better stress management and coping skills
• Lowers blood pressure, cholesterol levels in the body and improves blood circulation.
• Gives you the energy to complete tasks with ease.

After your walk is done, remember to stretch your body to prevent muscle soreness. For a more energetic and lively workout, you can listen to lilting music as you walk. If you are using headphones, keep the volume turned down and pay attention to any traffic to avoid any accidents. Make sure you note down your progress. Experts recommend at least 20 minutes walk a day, though there are no stringent rules. It is a good idea to fit walking into your daily schedule. You can even break up the walking time into two 10 minute walks every day. The best walking schedule is one that suits you and keeps you fit.

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Health Benefits of Regular Exercise

• Energy Booster: Daily exercise improves stamina and physical strength. It boosts energy to complete a number of activities and tasks.
• Mood Enhancer: Regular exercise releases brain chemicals called endorphins; which reduce anxiety, stress or depression and help in positive thinking.
• Improves Self Confidence: With improved energy, flexibility, positive thoughts you gain a sense of control which enhances your self esteem and confidence levels.
• Sound Sleep: Researches show that regular physical fitness help to regularize sleep patterns. You sleep better and this gives you the rest needed to enjoy an active lifestyle.
• Weight Control: Obesity and excess body fat is associated with heart disease. Exercise helps to lose weight, abdominal fat and maintain a healthy body weight.
• Blood Pressure Control: Hypertension (high blood pressure) is kept in check with reduced risk of stroke.
• Positive Heart Health: Aerobic exercises such as walking, jogging, treadmill, cycling, skipping rope improve physical activity of the heart. Thus, regular exercise reduces risk of heart disease. There is improved functioning of the heart muscle even after heart attack or a bypass.
• Blood Cholesterol Levels: Regular physical exercise lowers triglycerides and increases the good cholesterol (HDL cholesterol).
• Blood Sugar Levels: In diabetics, the blood sugar levels are kept in control.
• Cancer Risk: There is reduced risk of colon cancer.
• Bone Health: Exercise improves bone density, reduces risk for osteoporosis and fractures later on in life.
• Improved gastro-intestinal functions: Regular exercise improves functioning of the gastrointestinal system as it reduces gas formation and relieves flatulence which arises out of an erratic lifestyle, irregular eating habits which result in acidity and gases.

Daily regular physical activity gives you better mental and physical health. The key idea is to have regular exercise. We can find ways to get more active and pave the way for better health lifelong. It is easy to find a countless excuses to avoid exercise. Don’t think of it as a negative thing you have to do. Get moving – you can identify opportunities to exercise with simple tasks in your daily life. Read Workouts for busy people for those who just don’t seem to find the time to exercise in their busy everyday schedules.

What are you waiting for? Get your butt moving…

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Physical activity need not be formal, time-consuming or strenuous to be good for you. Every physical activity burns calories, hence even short sessions of informal activity can give all the benefits of regular exercise. Take a look!

Start your own exercise program – start walking and gradually progress to 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity on at least 4-5 days of the week. Moderate intensity activities are brisk walking, doing household work, golfing, dancing. Moderate intensity activities are those which move the large muscles in your arms and feet. These include even daily life activities like walking up and down the stairs, taking a brisk walk to or from home, workplace or off-site business meetings, walking the dog, jumping the rope while listening to music, riding a stationary bicycle or an exercise cycle while reading the newspaper, cleaning up at home, using the bicycle to run errands or visit friends, playing with children, buying groceries.

Choose an activity which fits into your work week and maintain a chart to keep track. Get used to doing one activity during the week, then add another one. Repeat the process until you incorporate 150 minutes of activity in your working week – 30 minutes 5 days a week.
Here is a sample chart to keep track of your physical activity

Total Time should be 150 minutes in 1 week

Once you get started, you’ll be surprised how you manage to fit in activities other than those you do in your usual work week. And, once you get started it is a snowball effect. Don’t be amazed if you identify ways to creatively fit in new activities one after the other.

Here are some more ideas to add new activities to get fit and fitter.

• Walk to lunch restaurants at a distance from your office instead of stopping at the closest eatery.
• Join a health club or gym near your workplace where you can workout before or after work.
• Use speaker phone when answering calls so you can get up and move about doing your tasks during calls. Remember standing burns more calories than sitting.
• Use the stairs instead of the elevator. If your workplace is on higher floors, you can get off the elevator midway and walk up the rest of the way. Add more floors as you build up on your stamina.
• Park your car at a distance from the grocery store or back end of the parking lot. This way, you can walk up to your parked car carrying the grocery shopping.
• Join a sports community group – you will end up meeting a lot of new people, enjoy doing a sport activity that you are fond of and get into shape.
• Stop using the remote control. Get up to switch TV channels, radio or music channel.
• Work out using a low-impact aerobics video at home.
• Go dancing or play an activity sport with your family and friends rather than watching a movie.

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Pregnancy Workout – Do’s and Don’t’s

Goals for pregnancy safe exercise should be discussed with your doctor or gynecologist.
Low to moderate intensity workout sessions 3-5 times a week lasting for 30-40 minutes are useful. Intensity of exercise can range from 45-70% of your target heart rate depending on your medical history, age and fitness level.

Low Impact Exercises
Pregnant women are not advised to take a vigorous exercise program.

• Do not exercise till you get exhausted.
• Safe low impact exercises include walking, cycling and swimming.
• Avoid high impact exercises like jumping, jogging or skipping. Main causes of injury are exercising too fast. The main aim of pregnancy exercise is to be fit, not feel tired due to over-training.
• Avoid lying on your back and exercising. This position reduces cardiac output in pregnant women.
• Avoid abdominal exercises or any type of exercise that can cause even mild trauma to the abdomen.
• Pregnant women tend to be more flexible as compared to non pregnant women. Hence, it is best to take care while stretching and avoid over-stretching.

Pregnancy Exercises

Warm up Exercises
Walk or march for 10 minutes. This raises the body’s core temperature. When muscles are warm, they are less prone to injury and perform better. A warm up prepares you for the activity that follows.

Stay hydrated
Drink a lot of water before, during and after exercise sessions to prevent getting dehydrated. Pregnant women tend to sweat easily and the water lost needs to be replenished.

Strength Training
A pregnant woman can safely lift up light weights for weight training exercises. Heavy weights need to be avoided during pregnancy.
1) Wall Sit
Sit with your back straight against the wall. Bend knees to form a 90 degree angle and lean forward to lower yourself, as if you are sitting on an imaginary chair. Stay in this position for 30 seconds or slightly more. Wall sit exercise gives a good workout to your hips and thighs.

2) Wall Press-Ups
Stand tall to face the wall. Keep hands on the wall such that they are wider than the shoulder width apart. Bring your chest closer towards the wall to bend your elbows and then go back to the starting position. Two sets of 12-15 counts are good. Wall press up exercise gives a good workout to the chest, at the front of the shoulder and triceps.

There is no perfect pregnancy workout. Pregnant women can use these exercise workouts as a guideline. Stop exercising the minute you feel fatigued. There are various pregnancy workout videos, books with guided step by step pictures. It is a good idea to join online pregnancy forums and talk to other pregnant mothers with whom you can share and learn wonderful experiences as you nurture your baby.

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