Walking for Increased Health
You have likely spotted an increased interest in the impact walking has on health. Recently, it kind of feels like everyone has a little pedometer attached to their body to advise them of exactly how many miles they manage to walk around the office every day.
Make no bones about it, the walking you do every day at work certainly is burning calories. However, if it was sufficient to get you into the shape you wish to be in, you probably wouldn’t be reading this post.
Walking with your wellbeing in mind demands that you set aside time every day to walk specifically with that goal in mind. You’re going to be walking in an other way than you do round the office and you wish to be in a position to maintain a consistent and constant schedule.
Your goal is going to be increasing your heart rate and keeping up the speeded up rate for at least thirty mins. Getting your heartbeat rate up is simply a matter of walking faster and letting your arms swing as you walk. Regarding your pulse, you should do a fast bit of maths to identify your maximum heartbeat rate. Cut back the number 220 by your current age ; the result is your maximum heartbeat rate.
Walking is a low intensity exercise, so your target should be to get your pulse up to around 60 percent of your maximum heartbeat rate. So, for instance, if you’re now 40 years old, then taking forty away from 220 gives you 180. Sixty percent of 180 is 108 beats per minute, which becomes your approximate target. The easiest measure of your pulse is to check your pulse for ten seconds and multiply that number by 6.
Alright already, enough math. Let’s get back to walking!
As with most low power exercises, walking carries only a minimal possibility of strain or injury so it’s safe for just about everyone. Although it’s a low power exercise, however ; you should still set goals for yourself to increase the challenge of walking. To accomplish this, you can either gradually increase the amount of time you walk while you keep the pace the same, or you can increase the pace while keeping the quantity of time you walk the same.
One way to keep your interest level high for walking is to have a range of different places to walk. Even though it may sound strange to some, there’s little wrong with getting in your car and driving somewhere to walk! The fresh view will be a welcome change.
An alternative way to maintain your interest in walking, basically, is to find a partner to walk with. Unlike running and other high power exercises, walking still permits you to carry on a conversation. Even if you choose not to chat while walking, having the company can still fortify your willpower.
While I have walked with a partner and liked the experience, I find walking alone to be more rewarding. I realized after roughly a month of walking that I was actually starting to practice walking meditation.
I know that, to many of you, walking meditation sounds like an oxymoron. Meditation is commonly times understood as a nearly hypnotic trance which requires sitting in one place for a very long time.
In reality, meditation is heightened state of awareness in which your entire focus is targeted on the moment. So, while walking, I focus my attention on my respiring, on the movement of my body, and on the environment around me. I find my thoughts wander sometimes and I may get thinking about the past or the future ; when I see this I simply bring my focus and concentration back to the present time.
Even if you’ve never had an interest in practicing meditation, I strongly encourage you to try just being present while you walk. Try keeping your focus on the three things I discussed above. You can probably find, as i did, that your walking begins to take on a new dimension.
