Walk to Fitness

Make it Brisk | Getting Started | Tips | Step it Out | Stay in the Zone

Walking is one of the most effective ways to get fit.

A good brisk walk will give your heart and lungs a terrific workout, enabling life giving oxygen to get to all your bodies cells and boost the efficiency of your circulation.

Walking is also one of the best ways to control your weight!!

Brisk walking can burn 100 calories or more a mile
That’s 300 calories an hour
Walking uphill can increase this by 50%

Walking is low impact so there is little stress on your joints.

Walking is also good for your emotional health, a walk of 45 minutes or more triggers the production of the body’s own feel good hormones, endorphins, which in turn create feelings of well being and relieve anxiety and stress.

Regular brisk walking could even help you live longer, according to research. In one study which tracked 16,000 healthy men and women on a twin register for 19 years, showed that brisk walks of just half an hour six times a month reduced the risk of dying prematurely by 44 percent!!!!.

The British Heart Foundation were quoted as saying ‘Reasonable vigorous exercise, such as brisk walking, has been shown to be one of the major natural factors in alleviating coronary heart disease, raised blood pressure and obesity, as well as enhancing the immune system and helping to reduce bone-thinning in post menopausal women’

Make it Brisk

The best walking workout is a brisk one, although if you haven’t been exercising recently a slowish saunter is better than nothing.

You will know when you are walking briskly if:

your heart is beating faster than usual but not racing
your breathing is heavier but you can still conduct a conversation
you feel warm and slightly sweaty

Getting Started

Research shows that it takes 21 days to establish a habit so the first 3 weeks are designed to help you do just that.



Week 1	3 x 30 minute walks a week.	It may be easier break it down into 3 x 10 minute walks to accumulate the 30 minutes.
Week 2-3	You’ve established a routine, now increase it to 4 x 30 minute walks a week.	You may break this down into 2 x 15 minute walks to accumulate 30 minutes.
Weeks 4-6	The next 3 weeks are devoted to increasing the distance, speed and difficulty of your walks, so you are able to cope with longer more arduous trips.
Week 4	5 x 30 minute walks per week.	Again, you may break this down into 2 walks of 15 minutes.
Week 5	Step up your walking habit by increasing to 5 x 45 minute walks per week	You can break this up into 1 x 15 minute and 1 x 30 minute walk.
Week 6	Time to increase the effort by adding some more speed and / or endurance to your workout.	Continue with 5 x 45 minute walks a week but either try to walk further each time or take a different route and include a few hills.
Week 6 onwards	Congratulations!! You are now a walker. Keep up the good work.	Aim to increase to an hour of walking every day - remember you can still break it down into smaller chunks if you find it hard to find the time.

Note: If you find any week hard, just repeat the programme for that week and stay with it until you are able to progress comfortably to the next level.

Tips

Always wear decent footwear, supple, comfortable and supportive.
Buy a pedometer to check your pace and distance.
Join a walking club and do longer walks at weekends.
Try to walk with some company or walk the dog.

Step it Out

Watch your posture: Neck and shoulders relaxed, abdomen in.
Chin up, looking forwards not down
Breathe deeply from your abdomen
Find a comfortable stride
Heel down first
Push through the stride with your body weight
Keep your feet relaxed
Do a few simple stretches after walking to avoid muscle stiffness.

Stay in the Zone

Walking is most effective, when it is sufficiently brisk to get your heart working harder. If you use a Heart Rate Monitor, calculate 220 - age to get Max heart rate (MHR) then aim to keep your pulse rate at between 60 and 80% of your MHR.

For example: if you are 50, MHR=170 bpm, your target is 102 - 136 bpm.