subject: How To Include Walking Exercise In Your Daily Routine [print this page] How To Include Walking Exercise In Your Daily Routine
Walking is an excellent way to take exercise. It's something that most of use do, to some degree at least, each and every day. There is no special equipment or apparatus required - apart from a pair of comfortable shoes - and you can fit it into your daily routine whenever it suits you best. It's also very cost effective - there are no gym membership fees to pay each monthThere are so many health benefits associated with walking that it's almost difficult to credit that these are available from a low impact, low injury risk exercise format. The important thing is consistency - low level exercise, performed on a regular basis is very much better for you than infrequent and periodic spells of intense physical activity.Walking for thirty minutes, three or four times weekly, on a regular basis will soon generate results that you can feel and see. If you can build up to 10,000 steps daily - that's between four and a half and five miles for the average stride length - then you will really start to reap the rewards.There are plenty of opportunities to walk a little bit further each day. If your schedule allows you to fit in a half hour, or even an hour, of walking daily then that's good. If that's not practical for you then there's no need to despair - there are many ways to ramp up your daily number of steps taken.Leaving the car in the garage and walking to work or school is sound advice. However, if the distance involved is too great then take the car as usual - but park it in the far corner of the parking lot so that you have further to walk to get to the entrance. If you travel on the bus or the subway then you could get off one or two stops before your destination and complete your journey on foot.During your lunch break, take a ten or fifteen minute walk around the block. It'll be better for you than munching a sandwich in front of your computer (you'll have more energy and be more mentally alert in the afternoon as well). Take full advantage of modern technology and pace about while you're talking on your mobile or cordless phone. You can fit in an extra 1,000 paces during a single fifteen minute telephone conversation. That's the type of multi-tasking that is genuinely beneficial to you!If most of your walking activity is fitted into your daily schedule in a piecemeal manner, then you may want to think about getting yourself a pedometer - these are available starting at less than $10 these days. You can carry one of these in your pocket or attach it to your belt. It will allow you to monitor your progress in terms of the number of steps taken, the distance covered or the number of calories burned. Keeping track of your progress like this might help to keep you motivated and will encourage you to look for other ways to build walking into your daily routine.
