Walking is a fantastic method of losing weight, getting in shape and achieving a whole host of major health benefits. It’s a low impact way to exercise that doesn’t require any special equipment, training or expertise. You can do it anywhere – no need to make a trip to the gym – which also means that there are no costly membership fees to be paid. You can schedule it into your daily routine whenever it suits you best. Do it in one session or break it into a number of shorter sessions between other activities. It’s your choice.
One piece of essential equipment for walking is a good comfortable pair of shoes. If your shoes give you blisters or cause you discomfort, then it will be difficult to motivate yourself to keep up with your walking workout program. So be sure that you have a good fitting, comfortable pair. If you like, you could get some of the latest designs of fitness shoes which help to raise the amount of work that your lower body muscles perform whilst walking normally.
There are a number of different makes available – Skechers Shape Ups, Reeboks Easy Tones, Fit flops exercise sandals and Masai Barefoot Technology are amongst the best known and most popular – but there are more brands appearing on the market all the time. There are some variations, but the common concept appears to be a specially engineered sole which increases the amount of work done performed your leg and butt muscles. This boosts the effectiveness of your workout and helps you in getting the maximum return from your walking exercise program.
Most health professionals seem to suggest that should be aiming for 10,000 steps a day on a regular basis in order to achieve all of the various health benefits. Many people find that wearing a pedometer can be a useful motivational aid to help them add more steps into their day and get closer to the target figure. Pedometers are not expensive these days but, if you think that a pedometer would help you to stay motivated you should be certain to get a reasonably good quality model.
A recent study found that a high percentage of pedometers were inaccurate – by as much as 50% in some cases. The general trend seemed to be for inaccurate pedometers to overestimate the number of steps taken – so someone who was taking 5,000 steps a day might mistakenly believe that they were hitting the 10,000 step target value. This is because cheaper pedometers usually use a hairspring technology which is factory calibrated during manufacture. These tend to become less and less accurate as the pedometer ages – with an increasing tendency to overestimate the number of steps being the norm.
Better models employ coiled spring technology and dual accelerometer sensors which means that they have greater accuracy, a longer lifespan and that they can be carried in your pocket or a bag instead of being worn on your belt. An Omron pedometer typically has an accuracy of plus or minus 5%. Other quality brands include Yamax, Taneka and New Lifestyles.
If you want to check the accuracy of your pedometer there are two simple but effective tests that you can perform. The first is to simply count out 100 steps and compare it with what your pedometer has recorded. The second test method is to take a note of the reading on your pedometer just before you first sit down – at your desk at work perhaps – and then to check it again after being seated for thirty minutes or so. If it rises significantly due to your normal movements whilst seated then it will overestimate your step count.
These days, the vast majority of pedometers are digital. They usually have some on-board memory memory and you can typically see 7 days worth of results – which is good if you want to track your progress. More and more of them even allow you to load your results into a PC using a USB connection so that you can monitor your results over a longer period of time. You can usually change the way that your results are displayed as well. Take your choice from the total number of steps taken, the number of calories burned or the distance covered – whichever helps you to keep your motivation up.
Boost the effectiveness of your walking workout routine using Fit flops fitness shoes. Keep your motivation levels high by using an Omron pedometer to monitor your progress.