How to Start a Walking Fitness Plan

By Tim Williams • November 12, 2009

walkingdogs There is no better time than right now to begin your own outdoor fitness walking program. Keep in mind that walking outdoors is going to offer you more benefits than simply getting outside of the house occasionally. When you go on regular walks, you are going to strengthen your muscles, tone your muscles, increase your stamina, boost your metabolism, boost your energy, burn more calories, burn more fat, release your stress, improve your heart health, lower your blood pressure and even greatly reduce the risks that are associated with heart disease and other diseases such as osteoporosis. With all these benefits, what are you waiting for? Walking is low impact so it is easy on your joints, and it is low cost because it doesn’t take much at all in order for you to get started.

Walking Fitness Tip #1 – Make sure that you are starting with the right equipment, meaning that you have loose fitting and light weight clothing and the right shoes. You should be changing your shoes out every six months or so to make sure that there is no excessive wear or tear that may prevent you from getting the most out of your walking routine.

Walking Fitness Tip #2 – It is vitally important that you are using proper form when you are walking. When you are walking, you should be standing with your back straight, your shoulders should be back just slightly and your chin should be up. You should roll your feet in such a way that you are landing on each heel and then using your toes to push off. You should make sure that your feet are parallel with one another rather than pointing in or pointing out. Your arms should swing loosely at your sides and you should be breathing deeply and fully as you go along.

Walking Fitness Tip #3 – Make sure that you have an understanding of your target heart rate, as this is the range where you are going to gain the most possible benefits from the exercise routine that you participate in. Subtract your age from 220, to get your maximum heart rate. Now 60 percent to 80 percent of this number is your target heart rate, so that is the number that you should be using. This will tell you what your target beats per minute is, and you should strive to achieve that when you are walking in order to get the most possible benefits.

Walking Fitness Tip #4 – Absolutely make sure that you warm up and that you cool down with every single workout. You’ll never know the true benefit of this until you forget one day and end up hurting yourself!

Photo Credits: CarbonNYC

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