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If You Walk For Exercise Then You're Probably Wasting Your Time

Guest post by: Dr. Paul Lanthois

Article Overview: Time is important for any entrepreneur wanting a healthy work life balance. So you do not want to waste your time on time-consuming exercise programs that produce very little in terms of results. Many activities promoted by companies as part of their corporate health and wellness programs like encouraging employees to walk for exercise produce little health benefits to their employees. Quite simply, if you are not huffing and puffing, then it's not exercise...

If You Walk For Exercise Then You're Probably Wasting Your Time

Every week I seem to meet someone with Jennifer´s dilemma. "I´ve been feeling flat and run-down," she sighed. " I need to get myself back into shape. I also need to lose this thirty five pounds that I´ve put on.Can you help?" she begged.

Jennifer´s frustration was palpable. "I´ve been doing all the right things to get myself into shape but nothing seems to be working," she said. "For the last six months I have been exercising for an hour every day and I have put on weight if anything". Although being a successful businesswoman, Jennifer felt like she was a failure. The insecurity and frustration that was building up was beginning to affect her work and her relationships. It was a feeling of no longer being in control. It was a real sense of helplessness.

So what do you do if you begin to lose the battle of the bulge or your fitness kick fizzles?

Do you dread the prospect of having to go on an even more extreme fitness kick or radical diet?

Or...

Do you resign yourself to an ever-expanding waistline as a natural part of the ageing process and give up?

Fortunately there is a simple effective solution. An investigation into her exercise highlighted a common misconception that many people have regarding exercise.

"What exercise do you do?"

"My husband and I walk for an hour every morning" Jennifer declared rather proudly.

"When you are walking. Are you puffing?"

Jennifer hesitated for a moment. "No, but we walk for an hour."

"That´s your problem. If you´re not huffing and puffing, then you are resting," I declared.

Jennifer then brought up the precise reason that confuses people who walk for exercise. "But that can´t be right." she interjected. "It must be doing some good. We feel so much better after our morning walk."

It is important to understand that walking does do you some good but if you are not puffing don´t try to kid yourself into thinking that walking is exercise.

Walking is great for relaxing and clearing the mind. It is refreshing for both the mind and the soul to get outside and walk in the local park with your friends and family.

What concerns me is the growing number of so-called "exercise groups" that get together for a daily stroll. Like so many devoted walkers, they think that they are doing the right thing by following the common recommendations of exercising for thirty minutes a day. But walking isn´t exercise! Whatever activities you do only becomes exercise once you start you start puffing.

So all these walking fitness programs like 10 000 steps per day are a waste of time unless you are puffing. By puffing I don´t mean gasping for air with exhaustion. I mean puffing while at that same time being able to talk.

When I mentioned this at one of my Boosting Energy workshops, I could feel this palpable sense of discontent amongst the attendees. What I said wasn´t what they wanted to hear and they soon began to voice their discontent.

" But I don´t like going to the gym," objected one lady.

"And I can´t run because of my hips and my knees," another man joined in.

I lifted both of my arms up in an effort to try to placate the crowd.

"Who said anything about joining a gym or going running?" I asked.

This seemed to quiet the mob temporarily.

"What I am saying is that you need to look at ways to increase the intensity of your workout to a level that makes you puff." The group´s continued silence indicated that they were prepared to listen.

"Although going to the gym or running are excellent options to increase your workout intensity, the best exercise for you is an exercise that you´ll actually do. Once you have chosen the types of exercise that you will do, you need to work out how to increase this intensity to a level where you are puffing."

Like many of the workshop attendees, you may be wondering how you can increase your exercise intensity, especially if you are restricted to activities such as walking by certain body ailments such as back and knee complaints.

So here is how you can effectively boost your fitness levels by walking...

You´ve all heard the saying, "variety is the spice of life." In my opinion "variety is the spice for exercise." Exercise variety is the most effective way to spice up a bland boring and ineffective exercise program. When you have been so accustomed to walking at the same pace and along the same path for the same amount of time it is no longer a challenge for your body. Also only particular parts of particular muscles are working out so you are only working out a small proportion of your body.

The more variety that you introduce into your walking program you are going to exercise a greater variety of muscles in your body. This serves to recruit more muscle to provide greater fitness benefits in addition to helping prevent repetitive strain and overuse injuries by spreading the load.

The simplest way to change the intensity of your walking program is to walk faster. It can be a consistent faster pace or you can do walking sprints every couple of minutes.

If you don´t think your joints are up to a faster pace, you can boost your workout by trying to walk backwards or side wards at your normal walking pace.

The more intense walking walkouts actually require you to walk slower...

Try walking slower taking large steps. It will give you a workout you will not forget. If you walk in soft sand or walk in water, you will get a lot better workout without walking at anywhere near your normal speed. For more variety walking up and down hills will get you feeling different parts of your body that you never knew you had.

Whatever type of exercise that you choose to do is not important. The only thing that you need to be aware of to be sure that you are exercising effectively is that you are puffing.

You may be wondering, "How much of a difference is this puffing going to make."

A University of Alberta study found that people who exercised at a puffing intensity over a six-month period increased their aerobic fitness at two and a half times the rate of people who did exactly the same exercise at a non-puffing intensity.

Imagine the difference it would make to your energy levels and to your work. Imagine the difference it would make to your company´s work environment and bottom line if all the employees were to more than double the improvement in their current fitness levels. And remember this doesn´t take any extra time because when you exercise at a greater intensity it doesn´t require as much time to have an affect.

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Article Tags: ageing process, battle of the bulge, br, businesswoman, common misconception, dilemma, dread, effective solution, exercise, extreme fitness, failure, frustration, helplessness, insecurity, precise reason, radical diet, relationships, shape, six months, waistline



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