Last time I talked about the importance of exercise and the difference between low impact exercise and high impact exercise. Today I want to focus on the low impact exercise of walking. Walking is one of my favorite exercises because it not only allows you to enjoy your surroundings as you exercise, but it also helps your body to burn fat more consistently than several other high impact forms of exercise.
Walking is a great exercise for people who are interested in turning their health around. It is a cheap exercise, it can be done just about any where, and it can be incorporated into your normal routine. The supplies that you will need for a safe walking workout include a water bottle, good walking shoes, a good pair of cotton socks and a safe place to walk.
Finding a place to walk is not difficult to do. You can walk on a treadmill in your home, you can walk around the block, you can walk up the stairs at work, you can park farther away from your place of work so you have to walk farther to and from your job site or you can go to a park to walk. Adding about 500 extra steps to your day can help you to shed extra weight and improve your cardiovascular health dramatically with relatively little effort.
Walking with a friend can help to make the miles pass by faster and it will also help you to stay motivated on reaching your goals. The first couple of weeks are going to be the most difficult. However, if you can stick with your walking program for a few weeks, it will become an engrained part of your routine and you will automatically go on your walks without thinking much about it.
Walking is a simple exercise that can lead to better overall long term health. As your health improves your risks for long term care will be minimized and your premium costs for long term health insurance will shrink in tandem with your waistline.
It’s true that there are compact treadmills, but it’s dangerous to run on them since it’s so easy to fall off the back. A better suggestion would be a compact elliptical machine, there are some new ones that still have a good or even adjustable stride length. Check out for good and honest reviews.