While our home workouts here often focus on more challenging exercises, we understand that not everyone is able to achieve such strenuous exercises. There are a variety of reasons why we may not be able to do strenuous exercise; recovery from surgery, health conditions, exhaustion are just naming a few. Yet even when we are in these periods of feeling less that one hundred percent, physical activity, even light activity, can be incredibly beneficial. Movement not just boosts heart health but also burns excess calories and speeds healing and recovery. So for those weeks or months when we are unable to go for a run or lift weights, we have devised a walking plan, complete with add ons to keep our bodies active.
Treat Walking as an Exercise
Though walking is often not mentioned as an exercise, it is still a great one when approached as an one. Far too often we chat and meander in a walk, which is great for meditation or mindfulness exercises, but does little to boost our heart rate. Even though a walk is much more gentle on joints and body, it still should raise your heart rate and make you start to sweat. There isn't a magic speed or distance here that will work with everyone so listen to your own body. You ideally want to reach a pace where you can not speak for 30% of your exercise and then come to being able to speak in one or two word answers for another 40% of your time, with the remaining 30% being divided between your warm up and cool down. You can use the speaking guide as a way to keep a record for yourself. Aim for 20 minutes to start yourself out but a walk can grow up to an hour.
Add your Arms/Weights
Once you are accustomed to your walk you can start pumping your arms and/or adding 1-2 lbs weights to add an upper body workout as well as a boost in intensity. You can move beyond just pumping your arms with your walk and add overhead presses, forward and side straight arm lifts and slow bicep curls.
Track you Personal Best
If you have a fitness tracker, you can wear it during your walk and try to improve your pace or distance every week. If you do not have one, you can time yourself for the same stretch of road every day. It is important to realize you will not see minute improvements overnight. An improvement in your walking endurance could be just a few seconds of improvement, so do not get discouraged from little or no improvements, it can take months.
Keep Consistent
Walking is something that will slowly build stamina, endurance and recovery but it requires us to keep up with it. Whatever your schedule is, be sure to stick to it. You will start to see changes in your body and mood after a couple weeks of consistent walking, not overnight.
Mix it Up
Once you feel that the schedule is becoming easy and you aren't experiencing any injury, you need to start adding or altering your walking plan. You can try going up hills, adding weights, increasing your walk by 500 steps, any and all of these methods are a great way to mix it up! The reason why we need to do this is because our bodies are very adaptable and will start finding ways to conserve energy whenever we get used to a workout or regime. In order to shock the body back into maximum calorie burning we need to make changes, usually about every 2 weeks, so our bodies stay on their proverbial toes.
Ultimately, the most important thing is that you move everyday. It doesn't have to be a 5k or a marathon, it doesn't have to involve box jumps and flipping monster truck tires, but your body needs you to move everyday no matter what your physical fitness levels are. Even if you aren't able to achieve the goals you set for yourself, forgive yourself and keep moving the next day. All of us have to start somewhere and there is a fitness program for every level, it just takes patience and perseverance to find what works for you.
How has your fitness journey unfolded this year? What are the things you struggle with? Reach out to us at infor@bullionite.com with any questions or comments.