3 THINGS TO DO FOR BETTER HEALTH BENEFITS FROM WALKING

One of the most common mistakes beginners make when starting a regular routine of walking is pushing themselves too hard. The key to building up your stamina and increasing your walking speed is to slow down. If you try to go too fast, or push yourself too far, you increase the risk of soreness and injury. You also increase the chances of getting discouraged because your “walk to fitness” is not having immediate results. The most important thing to remember when walking for fitness is to find and maintain a pace at which you are comfortable.

Gradually, as you build your stamina and become used to the new movements involved with brisk walking, you will begin to increase your speed. If you are in good health, you should, after a while, be able to walk a comfortable 12- minute mile. But don’t press it. If you begin to feel physically or mentally stressed and/or strained you are trying to do too much, too fast.

Your posture is also important in effective fitness walking. For best results you should stand up straight— don’t lean forward from the waist. Hold your head up high and let your shoulders relax. Many people look down when they walk and that puts an undue strain on the neck and the back. Walking “tall” with your head held high eliminates that pressure and automatically lifts your rib cage and frees your hips, allowing you to walk in a new, more comfortable and more effective way.

This new way of walking will help you to straighten your legs, land on your heels and roll forward to your toes, instead of lifting your leg and landing flat-footed as you may have been doing with incorrect posture. The better your technique, the less your risk of injury, and the more effective your routine of walking for fitness.

Still another important part of proper technique when walking for fitness is hip movement. The proper movement should be the same as the movement of your hips when you are shifting a medium-sized object you’ve been holding, from one hip to the other. One leg should straighten, while the other relaxes. When the knee bends, the hip should drop. You should maintain this hip movement—back and forth—every time you walk for fitness. Also, let your arms swing at your sides naturally. Once you’ve picked up a little speed, you may want to bend your arms at the elbow, but keep them swinging. The key is to let them swing naturally and don’t pump them. Pumping your arms tends to make your shoulders tense up.

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