Liven Up Your Walk

Good Tip for any walk? Bring along a friend!

We all know a universal truth about walking: It can get down right boring. So the key is to find ways to stay interested!

To liven things up this week I'm aiming for 3 or 4 days of  30 Minute* interval walks. This plan can be tweaked to your liking, but here are the basics to get you started..


Start off slow - Walk at a very casual, leisurely pace for 5 minutes. This is your warm up, but make sure you do a few stretches before actually starting to walk. During this 5 minutes, you can also pump and stretch your arms to get your circulation going.

Speed up a little -This speed should be about half way between your fast walk, and your warm-up walk. 2 minutes

Start the intervals - This section is 14 minutes of alternating Fast and No-So-Fast. Start out walking slower than your fastest comfortable speed, but you should still be faster than you were just walking. Do this for 1 minute. Then you alternate to 30 seconds of your fastest comfortable speed (As fast as you can go without hurting yourself). Initially, this doesn't feel like much, but by minute 14, you will feel the difference!

Ease up a little -You should be a half-speed again. 2 minutes

Slow it down - This is your 5 minute cool down. Remember to stretch again when you're done.

*Average 30 minutes - some days are a little more, some are a little less.


So that's it. You can do this walk several times a week, or just once. But, like strength training, don't do this two days in a row.

Additional ideas can be found here for treadmill users.


Happy Walking!

The photo can be found here.

Lets Get This Started

 May Our Treadmills Get More Use Than This One!

Before I post anything, let me add in this teeny tiny disclaimer. I'm not an athlete. I'm not a trainer, but I do know a small thing (or two) about working out. Ok, so maybe I don't know all that much. I know what I've read, researched, and done (and I'm learning more all the time), but I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough to give any real advice to anyone. I'm simply posting what I DO just in case you might need a little more inspiration. If I post something that you don't think you can do, then don't do it. Or check with a trainer or your doc first. Deal? Ok then let's get this show on the road.

The general structure of my routine is pretty basic:

Warm up- You know, get my heart pumping a lil bit.

Daily walk - I like to change the locations of my walks so that the scenery is always fresh and new. But I also like to spice up the TYPE of walk once in a while too. 

Daily Strength Moves - I do strength moves daily. My laziness and procrastination requires this. It doesn't take much for me to fall out of the habit. However, we have to remember the Number One Rule for strength training: Don't do it on consecutive days! So how do we get around this so that we can work out two days in a row? We get creative.The following is an example of what I might do in a given week:

Day 1 - Cardio & Upper Body (arms and shoulders)
Day 2 - Cardio & Lower Body (Legs)
Day 3 - Cardio & Core (Back and Mid-Section)
Day 4 - Cardio Only
Day 5 - Repeat Day 1
Day 6 - Repeat Day 2
Day 7 - Repeat Day 3

Of course, Day 1 and Day 5 of the following week will be days of Cardio Only.

By doing the routine this way, we are still obeying the rules. We are never working out the same muscles two days in a row. One thing to make note of: Some moves work out more than just their main targeted muscle groups. For example, some upper and lower body moves also target the core. However, if you just did the core the previous day (or if you are going to do the core the following day), pick upper and lower body moves that have minimal core interaction. We don't want to over stress your muscles. This could cause injury.

If you have a move that you love that targets multiple areas significantly, you could go ahead and combine those areas for that day, making sure that you don't do them again the next day.

Cool Down - This is usually similar to my warm-up. The idea is to ease your body into less activity while still moving. An effective cool down can limit or prevent soreness the following morning.

So, that is the basic skeleton of my workouts. Since we all know how much I like to change things up, some weeks might look different, but I'm still going for the same goal: Getting my rear off my desk chair and getting outside.



The photo can be found here.