Walk Your Way to a Good Workout

April 22, 2009

If you’re like me, you prefer to exercise outside where you can enjoy the fresh air, sights, sounds, and smells of spring.  Walking can be a great aerobic exercise if you do it right.  Otherwise, your walk may be a nice stroll around the block but not much of a workout.  Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your walk.

Get your heart rate up

If you don’t raise your heart rate, you are not getting to an aerobic state.  You can tell if you are getting an aerobic workout by either a) monitoring your hear rate or b) making sure that you walk fast enough to break a sweat.

• To monitor your heart rate, take your pulse on your neck or wrist for 6 seconds and multiply the results by 10.  Compare your results with your target heart rate.
• If you measure based on your body signals, be sure you break a sweat and your breathing is heavier than normal.  You should still be able to carry on a conversation; slow your pace down if you have difficulty breathing or talking.

If you are having trouble keeping your heart rate up you might try one of the following:

• Swing your arms to get your blood pumping harder
• Use hand or ankle weights — start out with light weights until you find the right size
• Try interval training — walk awhile and then jog for a bit; alternate between the two to keep your heart rate in your target range

Visualize your muscles working

One great techniques I use is to visualize my muscles lengthening and contracting as I walk.  I can see in my mind my leg muscles, stomach muscles, and butt muscles - as I visualize, I can also feel them working.  If I can’t feel my muscles at work, I’m probably not working hard enough.  I can always tell I got a good workout when my inner thighs and stomach muscles are tired at the end of my walk.

Don’t get distracted

One of the thinkgs I like about walking is that it’s “me” time.  I can think about things going on in my life and regroup/recharge.  The problem with “me” time is that I sometimes get lost in thought and forget to focus on the exercise.  When I realize I’ve slowed down and my stride has shortened, I know I’ve been lost in thought again.  Don’t let this happen to you — make an effort to stay focused.  Keep your pace up and make sure you are taking long strides so you work both inner and outer thighs as well as butt muscles.

The other distraction for me is my dog.  I try to combine walking Sam with my exercise but often times it doesn’t work well.  He wants to stop and pee on every mail box post and he goes nuts when he sees other dogs.  Every time I have to stop for him, it disrupts my pace and lowers my heart rate.  My advice is to leave the dog at home during your exercise time - take him for a walk when you can give him your full attention.

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