Plan Today for Tomorrow

Take today to plan a walking route for the weekend and each day in the coming week. Nothing elaborate. Just set a schedule of locations and write it down to check off each day. If you plan for it and anticipate doing it you will get more satisfaction and be more likely to carry through with it.

TODAY: PLAN YOUR WALK DESTINATIONS FOR THE COMING WEEK.

Day 1 of This Week

Walk day one of the routes you have set for goals this week.

What… no goals?

Get to it! I’m nagging you!

TODAY: WALK

Your Diet Is A Stretch

You need to do a bit of warm up before your daily walk to increase the effectiveness of the exercise and reduce any stiffness that might come later. There are just a few to do to give you a great start.

Hamstrings (back of legs)

1. Sit on the edge of your bed with one leg up and the other on the floor and reach with both hands until you feel the stretch in the back of the leg.

Calf stretch

1. Stand at arms length away from a wall and lean against it.

2. Put one leg straight back and the other bent under you.

3. Keep your back straight and lean your hips forward.

4. Keep rear leg straight with your heel on the ground.

5. Repeat for other leg.

Side stretch

1. Stand with both arms over your head.

2. Lean to one side, then the other.

3. You can also leave your right arm at your side and bend to the right while reaching your left arm reaches overhead, then reverse.

Torso twist

1. Stand with both arms out to side with elbows slightly bent.

2. Feet should be at shoulder width or slightly wider.

3. Twist your torso to the right and then the left, alternating back and forth slowly.

Quadriceps (thigh)

1. While leaning against a wall, reach back with your left hand and grab your right ankle.

2. Pull your foot back and away from your butt.

3. Repeat for the other side.

It really won’t take you long to do these. It’s a good way to start your exercise or even just your day.

TODAY: DO YOUR WARM UP EXERCISES.

Walk As Though Your Life Depended On It

I’ve got  one big reason for you to walk. If you don’t do it you will die sooner. Does that shock you? It has a different lasting effect if you are male or female, but both are positive. A study of over 72,000 nurses showed that women who walk three hours or more per week reduce their risk of a heart attack by 35%. For men the difference can be bigger. In one study of retired men, mortality rates of men who walk less than one mile a day was actually twice that (100% higher) of  those who walk more than two miles a day.

Just be careful crossing the street.

TODAY DO THREE THINGS:  1) WALK A ROUTE THAT YOU THINK IS TWO MILES   2) DRIVE IT TO SEE HOW FAR IT REALLY WAS.   3) MEASURE OUT A COUPLE OF DIFFERENT TWO MILE ROUTES TO WALK.

Exercise Is Where You Find It

It’s Spring. You’re finally going to be able to go outside and get moving again. You should be walking regularly already, but you also can get exercise when you work outside instead of just working out. So first, turn off the TV and go outside. Start a garden. Turning the soil, raking and hoeing are great exercise for many muscle groups. Mow the lawn, you’ll get lots of walking in that way. Just get active and do some outdoor chores. You’ll know you’ve exercised the next day! Of course you can minimize that by doing some stretching and warm-ups before you work. Don’t overdo it. There will always be more outdoor chores to do.

Keep “Marching” On

March is ending, but you should be hitting your stride now. No more excuses about it being too cold out to go walking. It doesn’t take anything besides putting one foot in front of the other. Left, right, left. Left, right, left. Out the door and down the street. If you want, you don’t need an mp3 player to give yourself a beat. Hum a marching tune. “76 Trombones” comes to mind. Or try the famous song from Saturday Night Fever “Staying Alive”. It’s got the perfect pace for a nice workout. Of course you’ll need to put on your white suit like John Travolta.

TODAY: HIT THE BRICKS AND WALK.

30 Second Burst Exercise Accelerator

I saw a report today from a university study in Ontario that a half hour of bicycling had the same effect as an hour and a half of moderate pedaling by simply doing 30 second “power bursts” followed by 4 minutes of slow pace cycling. It seems the same might work for other aerobic exercise like walking. Sounds like a great way to get more for less.

TODAY: TRY A POWER BURST WHEN YOU EXERCISE.