The Perfect Exercise - Walking

Five days a week I drive my car to the nearby American Legion and spend 40 minutes of brisk walking. How good is walking for you? You burn about 100 calories for every mile you walk. It builds endurance, flexibility, and muscle tone. It strengthens your bones without pounding your joints. It helps prevent heart disease, diabetes, strokes, high blood pressure, arthritis, Alzheimer's, and depression. It helps circulate the blood to all areas of the body. It increases your range of motion.

Besides those mentioned above, it has other advantages, too. It gives an individual confidence in his ability to stay fit. It makes them a happier person. It increases their ability to breath freely. It also gives one an awareness of things going on around them or in their neighborhood.

You don't need fancy shoes or sweats to walk. Just comfortable clothes and a light pair of shoes is all you need. So it is inexpensive to do. You can do it anywhere. When the weather is nice, you walk outside. When the weather is nasty, you can walk indoors. More and more, I see individuals walking in malls early in the morning hours before the stores open.

When you first start, start out slowly. You can gradually increase your time, distance, and pace as you get stronger. Don't be afraid to sit and rest if you need to. Talk to others as you walk. This will help pass the time. You should be able to walk fast enough and carry on a conversation.

Motivate yourself to stay committed to your task. It does take work and persistence. It is very easy to convince yourself to stay home or in bed.

It is good to have a walking buddy. You can motivate each other to finish what you set out to do.

Keep a journal of your efforts. Write your time intervals. If you use a pedometer, write your mileage down in the journal. A journal will keep you honest and working.

Check your heart rate before you start. Then check it about half way through your workout. Lastly, check it when you are done. See how quickly it can return to what it was when you started out before your workout.

Listen to music while you walk. Put on the headphones. Music can be a great motivator for keeping yourself going. Keep the volume low enough especially around traffic.

Change your scenery. Don't always take the same route. Look for some inclines or hills to challenge you.

Look for opportunities to walk at other times of the day. Use stairs instead of an elevator. Don't use your car if you can walk it.

If you walk outside, get yourself a walking stick. Ghandi always used a walking stick. You can use it to help stabilize your body, to move things out of your way, and to keep away snakes, or dogs.

When you start walking a lot and get into the groove of enjoyment, you won't want to stop. You will realize the benefits of it and will work to improve.

There are a couple of walking websites that can help you with your walking plan. They are the www.thewalkingsite.com and at AARP. www.stepuptobetterhealth.com