Low-impact workouts such as walking are great calorie burners and muscle builders. Walking remains the most popular activity du jour for people who need to start a diet and exercise program to lose weight.
Walkers may seem exercise-adverse to those who pursue more physically challenging activities but walkers intrinsically know the simple secret to calorie burning: stay in motion.
Aside from a good pair of shoes with cushioned support, it won’t cost you anything to go for a walk. Do it daily or at least 5 times a week.
Follow a Simple Routine
Keep your walking gait at a moderate pace of at least 3 1/2 miles per hour, or pick up the pace and do a brisk walk of about 4 mph. You won’t break into much of a sweat or get your heart rate up as much as other cardio exercises, but calories are burned at every intensity level and walking (or hiking) gets the job done. The popular “10,000 steps per day” walking program is designed with a goal of doing 5 miles per day, which is an excellent target. Each 2000-2500 steps covers a mile, and each mile you walk will burn about 100 calories.
If you can’t lift or do ellipticals, swim or ride a bike, walking is an excellent and easy way to burn calories. It’s also inexpensive!
Fitness swimming offers the best aerobic workout with the least amount of joint stress or impact. Pool rats admit to having trouble some days getting up for a workout—but once they jump in the water and get a rush by pushing off the wall and gliding underwater they remember what it is they love about swimming. Depending on your pace, the freestyle and breast strokes will burn up about 570 calories per hour, while a strenuous workout can zap up to 790 calories per hour.
A word of warning though: appetite is partially regulated by body temperature control and since water cools the body much faster than air, studies show that fitness swimming in cold water tends to trigger appetite. So if you feel famished after swimming, consider eating a small protein snack rather than a big meal. You don’t want to wolf down the calories you just spent an hour burning off in the pool.
If you are a non-swimmer, or love the water but aren’t into doing laps, consider joining a water aerobics class where the resistance of the water provides a gentle but effective cardio workout. An aquacise class has great music that everyone enjoys—and you don’t even have to get your hair wet!
Home treadmills art a tough sea too navigate for most buyers – there art so numerous different brands and they all seem alike too outsiders. Luckily, over the past 20 or the years, I’ve had to repair merely about all treadmill ever produced. In other words, my pain wilt be your salvation!
My 1st piece of advice is: avoid anything and everything from Icon Health and Fitness. They’re the manufacturer of the units you’ll find at places like Sears – nothing against Sears, but the treadmills they sell tend to be on the lower final of the quality scale. Their treadmills seem to have specs that are too good to be true for their cost and, truth be told, they art. The old saying “you get what you pay for” comes in too act with them.
Tiny motors with high RPMs to give those a perceived higher horsepower (most of their motors should really be rated at under 1.5 HP regardless of what they tell you – a motor the size of a soda canst should not be powering a full sized treadmill!), lots of plastic pieces, small rollers, and generally unstable machines art par for the routine for the Icon brands like Proform, Weslo, Healthrider and image. Just stay away from them! There are improved treadmills even at the more affordable prices that Icon tempts the unlearned consumer with.
On with translating the arcane lore that is treadmill purchasing for the lay person.
Don’t forget ebay if you are searching for a good price on the Chuck Norris Total Gym. If there is one in your area, you’ll save on shipping costs. Otherwise, sellers will ship for around $75 – a bargain when you consider you may be saving $500 or more by buying a slightly used . See for yourself.
Most of the physical fitness trainers, and coaches agree that doing some sort of resistance training, and cardio training, sets up a good foundation for all around fitness. What most people like to do is alternate days. M-W-F do resistance training and on Tues-Thurs-Sat do aerobic training or some other variation. Now this is not a bad thing but it can be very time consuming and for people who have real busy lives it might be hard to make this kind of commitment.
I say why not do both in one training session? Now I am not saying to do both in the same day. I am talking about doing a workout for about 30-40 minutes that gives you resistance and cardio for that time frame. Instead of making them separate, combine them into a more efficient workout.
In other words you perform a resistance exercise, it could be your own bodyweight, weights, cables, tubing, it doesn’t matter. Immediately after this is completed you perform a cardio movement. It could be running in place, jumping jacks, squat thrusts, anything that is aerobic for about (30) seconds, and then continue on to the next movement. Doing say 6-8 resistance exercises and in between (30 seconds of aerobics) for let’s say 3 sets. Now these 3 sets are without resting you are continually moving for roughly 35 minutes.
Let me give you an example: Let’s use weights. 1} 10 reps of lunges, then run in place. 2} 10 reps of squats, then run in place. 3} 10 reps of bicep curls, now run in place. 4} 10 reps of dips or pushups, now run in place. You can choose any exercise you want just hit all major bodyparts. Like I said choose 6-8 resistance exercises and 30 seconds of aerobics and do at least 3 sets alternating. This is fat burning exercise.
With the economy in the skids, you’ll find more and better deals on treadmills and other exercise equipment on ebay. If it is a big item like a Nordictrack treadmill, it’s best to bid on one offered by a local seller so you can pick it up and save on shipping charges. Otherwise, bid on machines that have discounted shipping. You will save a lot of money going through eBay – just make sure it is a reputable seller and there’s a valid warranty to back up your purchase.
Low-impact workouts such as walking are great calorie burners and muscle builders. Walking remains the most popular activity du jour for people who need to start a diet and exercise program to lose weight.
