Research shows that small changes in your daily life can achieve great fitness results. Reba Dodge, a floral designer in Maui, Hawaii, has been turning her daily walking exercise into a fun workout for eight years. She said she gets the best results by walking to stay in shape.
Forty-six-year-old Dodge’s experience proves that fitness does not require spending lots of money and doing fashionable exercises such as spinning and hot yoga. It can be completed by just walking every day. The mother of two tried climbing a steep hill, walking backward, walking with a pair of 2-pound dumbbells, and even considered wearing a weighted vest.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, 75-150 minutes of exercise per week is considered moderate-intensity exercise, and 150-300 minutes is regarded as high-intensity exercise. Walking can relieve stress and improve heart health and is one of the easiest ways to meet WHO standards.
Walking has a similar effect to jogging
Professionals point out that walking has a similar effect to jogging as long as it is combined with weight-bearing, climbing, intermittent exercise, or accelerated brisk walking.
A study published by the University of Cambridge in February this year found that walking briskly for 11 minutes daily can also reduce the risk of stroke, heart disease, and various cancers.
“Lack of time” is the number one excuse people give for not getting enough exercise.
Katie Breden, 42, always tries to keep a pair of sneakers in her car. She walks briskly around the field for an hour while her two sons exercise or walk around the park while they play. “Many parents sit on the bench playing with their cell phones,” Breden told The Wall Street Journal. ”If you want to find time to exercise, this is a simple way, and I do whatever I have to do after the workout.”
You can try to add a bit more energy when walking to expand your fitness results. Research in the British Medical Journal found that the wobbly “silly gait” featured in the British TV show Monty Python’s Flying Circus is more effective than the usual walking posture. The energy consumption of adults is about 2.5 times higher.
Abrea Wooten, senior manager of national education at Life Time Inc., a gym operating company, estimates that walking on an incline burns three to five times more calories per minute because your quadriceps and hamstrings get an extra workout. Finding a stride pace that allows you to swing your arms is ideal.
Wooten also suggests trying a mix of different walks every few months continuously to give your body a new challenge. For example, walking on the beach while on vacation can help strengthen the muscles that stabilize the body, or you can plan new walking routes in the rolling hills near your home.
Translated by Cecilia and edited by Amanda
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