Starting a Walking Routine for Beginners – Walking for Weight Loss
Some fun and interesting facts and tips about walking:
- It’s better to swing your arms when you walk.
- Walking uphill increases cardiovascular fitness and muscle tone.
- Every step you take uses up to 200 muscles.
- If you’re trying to improve your health, experts suggest walking 6,000 steps per day. If you’re trying to lose weight, walk a total of 10,000 steps to get the job done.
- Under certain circumstances, when you walk, the pressure you put on your feet exceeds your total body weight. If you run, this pressure can be up to three or four times your weight.
- It’s extremely important to be constantly aware of your surroundings when you walk. Statistics indicate a person is 36 more times likely to be killed walking than driving a car and 300 times more likely to be killed walking than traveling via airplane.
Walking is good for you and an excellent way to keep fit. One of the greatest things about walking is the fact that you benefit from it, no matter how much or how little you walk. Of course, the more you walk the better. But, every little bit helps.
Some Great Benefits of Walking
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Heart Health
Studies show that walking regularly lowers your risk of both heart disease and stroke. Walking gets your heart rate up and causes your body to burn calories. This, in turn, lowers your cholesterol level.
According to The Stroke Association, walking for half an hour every day helps to keep your blood pressure in check and reduces your risk of stroke by up to 27 percent. Walking gives your circulation a boost and helps to increase the levels of oxygen in your blood. This actually leads to feeling more energetic after a short (brisk) walk.
Walking isn’t going to build muscle as effectively as other more strenuous exercises. However, a walking routine does help you burn fat and build some muscle, especially in the legs. Walking gives your calves and your thighs quite a workout. It also helps your glutes.
Compared to more high-impact exercises such as running, walking is also very gentle on people with arthritis. It’s relatively easy to choose a route, head outside and give your muscles the workout they need.
Weight Loss and Other Benefits
According to Mayo Clinic, walking isn’t the best way to lose weight. But it certainly helps. To lose one pound per week, consider eliminating roughly 500 calories from your diet each day.
Walking is actually of more importance after you lose weight. Studies indicate the people who are most successful keeping weight off are those who participate in frequent physical activities. One of the most important things to remember is balance. Overdoing any form of exercise is dangerous. Start slow and gradually build up to a longer regimen.
After 30 minutes of walking at about 2 mph, you’ll have burned around 75 calories. If you manage to get your speed up to around 3 mph, the number goes up to approximately 100 calories. While a single hour of walking may not burn an impressive amount of calories (around as much as, say, a glass of chocolate milk would give you), these numbers add up when you work walking into your routine.
According to some studies, walking regularly benefits your immune system. Exercise such as walking causes our body to produce increased levels of several types of critical immune cells. Exposure to the sun also boosts our levels of vitamin D, which improves the performance of our immune systems as well as bone health.
Brain Booster
While you may not think it’s true, walking is also good for your brain. Walking has been shown to have multiple cognitive benefits, including improved cognitive control, improved academic performance and a boost of creativity in young people. This boost in creativity is especially prominent when young people walk outdoors, as exposure to a natural setting is thought to stimulate creativity.
Seniors who walk regularly are also shown to have improved memory function. The farther an elderly person can walk in a six-minute span of time, the better they tend to perform on memory and logic tests. Studies also show that elderly people who walk over six miles a week are less likely to experience brain shrinkage and dementia as the years go by.
Not only is walking good for your brain, it’s also good for your mood. Studies show that even moderate exercise such as a brisk walk causes our body to release endorphins – the neurotransmitter found in our brains that causes us to feel happiness and euphoria.
Walking regularly can stave off the negative effects of anxiety or stress. Establishing and sticking to a walking routine also gives you a sense of setting and completing goals, which can raise your self-esteem and leave you feeling more confident in yourself. What better reason to walk in a relaxing or a natural environment?
Another reason walking is great for your mood is it gives you time to think. Walking doesn’t take that much effort, so while we do it, we can ponder other areas in our lives. This gives you a chance to work through your problems in a relatively quiet and safe environment.
After starting a walking routine, you may find that you have your best ideas while walking around your neighborhood or down a trail through the forest. For some, walking is even similar to medication. The simple repetitive activity allows you to get out your anxiety while allowing your mind to tune out.
Getting the Right Shoes
When it comes to walking shoes, no single pair is going to be a good fit for everybody. The most important thing to keep in mind is comfort. Make sure that walking right in your shoes feels comfortable and that the shoes fit properly. Try to leave about 1/2 inch between the tip of your toes and the end of the shoe. Here a few more things to keep in mind as you select your hiking footwear:
* Try to find a shoe that is both lightweight and breathable. Thicker, heavier shoes will be less comfortable both to walk in and to wear for extended periods of time.
* Having a supportive heel is much better than a thick one. A shoe with a thicker heel causes your foot to slap down all at once rather than roll naturally.
* Make sure that you find a shoe with a sole that bends easily at the ball of the foot. Your foot needs to be able to lead with your heel, and then roll to the ball of your foot. A thick sole will always get in the way of this.
* Go shopping for your new shoes in the evening. Why? After walking around all day, your feet may be a little swollen. You want to be sure your shoes fit comfortably after being on your feet all day, and this is the best way to do it. Also, make sure you aren’t in a rush when deciding on walking shoes. You really need to take the time to walk around the store, to get an initial feel for the fit.
* After you pick out your new shoes, wear them around the house for a few days to break them in. The last thing you want to do is limp home the first time you “officially” go walking in them. This way, if anything about the shoes doesn’t agree with you, you’ll be able to take them back before they get all scuffed up outside.
* If you can, keep track of the number of miles that you walk while wearing your shoes. As a general guideline, it may be best to replace them every 250 to 500 miles. Of course, if they become damaged or worn out before then, be sure to replace them rather than wear them while damaged.
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Other Equipment
Clothing
When it comes to walking outdoors, the best clothes to wear varies greatly depending on the location and climate. It’s generally best to avoid darker colors, because they absorb the heat of sunlight. If you’ll be walking near a road or street, consider wearing a reflective vest or patches to ensure that drivers of passing cars will see you when it gets dark.
While cotton is a very common material, it may not be the best choice for hiking clothes. When cotton gets wet, it becomes a poor insulator and is not good at trapping body heat. This means you’ll feel much colder and face a higher risk of hypothermia. Instead, try to find clothing made of wool or synthetic materials.
Don’t forget to look for the right socks when you put your hiking outfit together. Socks that are made for hiking tend to provide more cushioning than typical cotton tube socks. They also tend to breathe better, which cuts down on sweat and leaves you more comfortable during long walks.
Water to Drink
Whenever you go out for a walk, be sure to bring plenty of water with you. If you don’t stay hydrated, you can end up suffering from the effects of fatigue or even heat exhaustion.
Texting Dangers
Years ago, before the age of texting, walking wasn’t quite as dangerous. Today, thousands of pedestrians are treated in local emergency rooms as a result of texting at the wrong time. What’s more disturbing is the fact that these numbers might even be higher. Why? Many people are too embarrassed to admit they fell or injured themselves in some other manner, while texting and walking.
Using your phone while you walk is more distracting than you might think. You’re doing something else, looking at something else and your mind is somewhere else. Think of it as three strikes against you.
Tracking Your Progress
When you’re walking for the sake of fitness, it’s important to keep track of when and how far you walk. If you don’t keep track of your progress, it can be difficult to plan out an effective walking schedule for the future. One of the best tools you can use to keep track of your walks is a walking journal or a calendar. With either (or even both) of these, you can easily take note of how far you walk every day.
Another useful walking tool is a pedometer, which keeps track of how many steps you take. This lets you keep a more accurate measure of how much you work out than tracking the time or distance that you walk. There are a wide variety of pedometers available on the market, as well as apps that let your smart phone track your steps.
Sticking to Your Walking Routine
Once you start following the routine you’ve established, it can be easy to slack off if you’re not careful. If you let yourself slip or decide to “take it easy” for a day, it can eventually lead to you dropping the walking routine altogether. Here are a couple of ways you can keep your walking routine engaging and fun.
Set Goals
Establishing goals for yourself is a sure way to get the most out of any activity. Goals help you to structure your time and effort. They also give you something to work toward, which provides you with reason to push yourself. Achieving your goals also makes you feel accomplished, which leads to a boost to your self-esteem.
Setting goals is especially important when it comes to walking for fitness. Of course, walking is still great for your body if you set out without a plan. You will still get some benefit out of each walk. However, in order for walking to have a serious positive impact on your health, you’ll have to walk on a more regular basis.
It’s best to start out small. For many new walkers, this means planning to walk for around fifteen to twenty minutes. While this may not seem like much walking, remember that it’s important to set goals that aren’t too hard to accomplish. If, once you go on your walk, twenty minutes doesn’t seem like enough; feel free to start out with a longer walk next time.
Once you have determined a reasonable distance goal, and you’ve managed to achieve it with each of your walks, it’s important to step it up. Of course, how exactly you add to your workout is up to you. But, if you add some time to each workout at regular intervals, you can expand on the fitness progress you’re already making.
Once your goals are established, backing down from your walking routine will be like breaking a promise to yourself. Keep track of how many days you can successfully follow your routine. This will give you that extra drive to get out and walk. If you’re thinking about skipping a day, you’ll have to reset your count.
Mix It Up
One reason you may find yourself straying from your walking routine is that doing the same thing day after day can become tedious. While this is true, there’s no reason that your walk has to be the same every day. Turning each walk into a different experience can be as easy as walking in a different direction.
Walking in a new environment helps to keep walking fresh, even if you do it daily. This doesn’t mean that you have to travel far away in order to walk. If you plan on walking around your neighborhood, use a street map to plan out several different routes of the same length.
Getting Started
When it comes to walking to get or stay fit, this information is really just the beginning. If you’re not yet convinced walking is for you, why not try walking on a “trial basis”? One-fourth of an average city block is equal to 200 steps. So, walking around the block, one time, racks up 800 steps. If that’s too much to start out with, cut that distance in half and then challenge yourself to walk a little further each day.
If you don’t want to walk alone, chances are a friend or family member will be willing to accompany you. Not only will you both benefit from the exercise, it’s also a great way to catch up on gossip or just life in general after a hectic day. Not to mention there’s safety in numbers.
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