- Health, Fitness & Weight Loss
- A Personal Trainer Changed my Life!
- Abdominal Exercise Myths
- Basal Metabolic Rate - Burn Fat while you Sleep
- The Benefits of Swiss Ball Training
- Corporate Fitness Boosts your Bottom Line!
- Corporate Health Tips
- Functional Performance Training
- Goal Setting for Fitness Results
- Guidelines for Body Fat Percentages
- How to Choose your Personal Trainer
- Introducing the BOSU Balance Trainer
- Motivated for Success
- Not All Swiss Balls are Created Equal
- Personal Training Studio vs Gym
- Recovery and Regeneration
- Sizing your Swiss Ball
- Training in your Target Heart Rate Zone
- Walk Off your Waistline
- Weight Loss - Why Weights Work
- Why a REPs PT is your Best Bet
- Why I Fell for my Foam Roller
- 5 Hot Tips for Beating your Winter Woes
- Sport Specific Performance
- Nutrition
- Training with Specific Conditions
- References
Walk Off your Waistline
Walking is One of the Best Ways to Take Charge of your Health.
Walking briskly for 20 to 45 minutes 3-5 days a week will not only have you feeling great, it will reduce your risk of heart disease and increase your life expectancy.
With walking you can go at your own pace and in your own time. You don’t need any equipment and you can do it almost anywhere. Consistency is the key to your walking workout. The more committed you are to walking all or most days of the week, the healthier you’ll be and the better results you will get.
You’ll be surprised at the number of opportunities you get to walk. Why not take the stairs instead of the elevator, get off the bus a few stops early, park the car a few blocks down the road from work or even walk to work and leave the car at home? If you take the attitude that small amounts of physical activity accumulate throughout the day, then every little bit counts. Be positive and proactive and remember a short walk is better than no walk at all.
Tips for making your walk out, a work out
- Be proactive by walking at the beginning of the day before breakfast. Getting active early in the morning, will kick start your metabolism for the day.
- Squeeze your butt as if you were holding a $100 note between your butt cheeks. Paying attention to your muscles will get you that little extra out of each and every walk.
- Take short, quick steps to get more work out of your butt muscles - a problem area for many.
- Shock effect - Imagine someone has dumped a bucket of ice down your back. Stand tall, drop and squeeze your shoulder blades together behind you.
- Zip up your abs – While you are clocking up the kilometres, imagine you’re zipping up a pair of tight jeans and pull your abdominal muscles in and up.
- Visualise your goal - Don’t replay the problems you may be dealing with. This is your time to focus on your health and well being. Visualise yourself getting fitter, leaner and healthier.
- Recruit – get your friends and/or office mates in on the act. By making your walking work out social and fun it won’t even feel like exercise!
- Keep the beat – listening to music will not only take your mind off the task at hand, it also provides a pacemaker. Try to keep up with the beat.
- Smile! Being positive is half the battle.
To get some more ideas on how you can incorporate walking into your day, contact us or call your local council for a list of events and activities being run in your area.
By Hamish Abbie BPhEd, BComm, CHEK L1, XLR8 Coach, REPs - 08/09/07