Is Walking The Best Kind Of Exercise You Can Do?

Walking may truly be the perfect exercise. This activity is easy to do, has a very low impact on the body, provides a great overall workout, and even has many benefits for your heart. Best of all, walking does not cost any money, it does not require a high degree of skill or training, and it does not require any expensive equipment. All you need is a good pair of walking shoes and you are on your way!

If you walk regularly then it has a lot of benefits. It will increase your stamina, help you lose weight, relieve stress, improve your balance, increase your lung capacity, and it can be done by people of all ages and levels of fitness. If this is not reason enough to lace up those sneakers and hit the road, consider this: physicians credit walking with having the ability to lower blood pressure, lower bad (LDL) cholesterol levels, raise good (HDL) cholesterol levels, lower the risk of developing type two diabetes, and even build bone strength.

In order to get all of the possible benefits out of your walking routine then it is important to start off correctly. You need to make sure you have some good shoes on, they need to be comfortable so you can walk in them for a fair distance, and if you are going off road then maybe get some which support your ankle too. It is a good idea to wear loose fitting clothing too, so you can move easily and it allows air to circulate. By dressing in multiple layers of clothing then you can better regulate your temperature. That means when you start off your are warm from what you are wearing, and then as your body heats up from walking then you can take layers off to make sure you are not too warm.

If you are going to be walking for a long time then you should probably warm up a bit before you go out. Take about five or ten minutes to warm up your muscles, stretch, and walk slowly in place. This will help to reduce the amount of stress your muscles are placed under, which will reduce the risk of pulls, strains, and even cramps. Once you have done that and are sure you have everything you need (keys etc) then you are ready to set off. Take your time and start off slowly; it is not a race and maintaining proper posture and movement is important. When you have completed your walk, finish with some gentle stretches and a few minutes of walking slowly in place.

As you start to get used to walking then you will want to start increasing either the pace or the duration of your walk. It is recommended that beginners undertake a short, fifteen minute walk about two times per week. When you have become used to this, you can increase the duration to about thirty minutes, and increase the frequency to about five days per week. At first that sounds like a lot of work, but if you start off gently then you will find as you get fitter then walking will start to make you feel really good, so you'll actually look forward to your walks.

In the winter then you don't want to lose your momentum, so it might be a good idea to invest in a treadmill for when it is either too cold to go out, snowing, icy or raining. That will also help to keep you safe as you don't want to be walking in the evening when it starts getting dark very early. You will find that walking on a treadmill is nowhere near as fun, but get a TV setup in front of it to stop you getting bored and make sure as soon as the weather starts getting better that you resume your old routine.

By: Katie Weston

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