Make a new year’s resolution? Why walking beats running
When you receive the Seal you start to notice your health. And you want to take better care of yourself. If this year you have a New Year’s resolution to start exercising, consider these tips.
You need a little exercise during the week. But you don’t need as much as you think. Just more than what you’re getting right now. How much is enough or too much? Experts say that you should do 30 minutes of exercise like walking 5 times a week. Or you should do 20 minutes of more intense exercise, like running 3 times a week.
If you want to start running, don’t overdo it. Don’t try to run every day when you’re out of shape. Some people will tell you that the best way to start is to work hard. But not if you’re out of shape. If you push yourself too hard at first, your body will likely get so tired that you’ll need more sleep than you can afford. So do not do it. In fact, it’s a good idea to not start running at all. Why?
Because you can lose weight just by walking, especially if you don’t exercise at all right now. And there are other benefits of walking as well. When you walk you do not stress your body as much as when you run. So you are not prone to injury. You won’t get bad knees and other painful problems. But you will get the exercise you need. And you can also lose weight.
But you won’t have to pay for an expensive gym if you start by walking. You won’t need special fitness clothing and you won’t need the most expensive running shoes either. It’s free and easy to do. Just go out and take a walk! It will also give you some time to think. You will probably think a lot more if you walk than if you run.
And you won’t think about your problems as much when you walk because your stress will dissolve with the effort. Speaking of ofion, there is a special form of walking exercise that can help speed up your metabolism. That will help you lose weight. What you have to do is find out what is the maximum speed at which you can walk. Compare that to your normal walking pace. Then find out what’s halfway between those two.
Begin by walking at your normal pace. Walk like that for 5 minutes. Then increase to half your fastest speed. Walk like that for 5 minutes. Then increase to your highest speed for 5 minutes.
Then gradually (not immediately) slow down to your normal walking pace. Repeat the 5-minute intervals from normal to half-fastest and fastest a second time. There are 2 sections with 3 steps of 5-minute walk that add up to 15 minutes each.
That’s 1 half hour of walking. A good thing to remember is that you should be back home or in your car when you are done. You don’t need to walk more than half an hour every day (unless you want to). When you’re done with the first 15-minute section, simply turn around and repeat the hike back to where you started. Doing these intervals will increase your metabolism more than anything else you can do, so you will lose some weight.
These are realistic goals and something you can commit to. Conventional wisdom tells you that running is the best way to lose weight, that your exercise has to be this strenuous. But if you walk these intervals, you’ll lose weight effortlessly because your metabolism will be at its peak. And you won’t have all the effort (and pain) that’s so hard to keep motivated when you’re out of shape.
When you are sealed, God will show you how to take better care of your health. God wants you to have a long (and better) life so that you can share the joy of him with others when you receive the Seal.
