walking (exercise)

movingtables · 29 Apr 2007 at 11:48

Just wondering how effective walking IS for you?

Thursday I did 1 hours constant walking.

Sunday (today) I did a 40 minute constant walk.

all at medium pace.

I can't bring myself to do anything more energetic than walking lol.
So I'm just wondering how effect Is walking as a form of exercise.

Cheers chaps..

Chong Warrior · 29 Apr 2007 at 12:25

Well it beats the hell out of sitting on your backside in front of the TV/PC/XBox. Not just physically but mentally aswell, especially if you go walking somewhere nice that you enjoy. The fresh air is also a great boost compared to the stale air in your home.

Hardly going to be as good for your CVS as swimming, playing football, HIIT training, squash, etc, etc is it?

movingtables · 29 Apr 2007 at 13:23

Chong Warrior said:
Well it beats the hell out of sitting on your backside in front of the TV/PC/XBox. Not just physically but mentally aswell, especially if you go walking somewhere nice that you enjoy. The fresh air is also a great boost compared to the stale air in your home.

Hardly going to be as good for your CVS as swimming, playing football, HIIT training, squash, etc, etc is it?

How do you know i sit on me bum watching xbox/tv and pc? which i do ofcourse

no walking isnt as good as swimming ect but rather than do nothing i suppose walking is ok.
For one week i have had cereal for my lunch instead of the usualy chips curry sausage ect.
in 1 week i lost 2½ pound. not that great huh ?

PS- i aint fat but i have a 3 month pregnant look.

what scares me the most is my doctor's name is DR.Chong :eek:

SexyGreyFox · 29 Apr 2007 at 16:38

A brisk walk is just as good as swimming and not as damaging to the joints as my 6.5 mile run was this morning.
A brisk walk is also good at getting the extra pounds off because you are doing aerobic exercise, while running is anaerobic and builds muscles.
The thing is that walking is obviously carrying all your weight and works the body harder than a bike or swimming which are carrying most of the weight for you. Swimming will work several more muscle groups though.
And of course the major advantage of walking is that your course is right outside your front door.
My wife started walking yesterday and we went to Bournes Sports and got her a MOT on her feet and chose the best shoes for her. I dropped her 3.2 miles from home this morning and she got back in 59mins while I went on my run.

Don't forget that your best friends while walking are an MP3 player and/or camera.

movingtables · 29 Apr 2007 at 16:57

dmpoole said:
A brisk walk is just as good as swimming and not as damaging to the joints as my 6.5 mile run was this morning.
A brisk walk is also good at getting the extra pounds off because you are doing aerobic exercise, while running is anaerobic and builds muscles.
The thing is that walking is obviously carrying all your weight and works the body harder than a bike or swimming which are carrying most of the weight for you. Swimming will work several more muscle groups though.
And of course the major advantage of walking is that your course is right outside your front door.
My wife started walking yesterday and we went to Bournes Sports and got her a MOT on her feet and chose the best shoes for her. I dropped her 3.2 miles from home this morning and she got back in 59mins while I went on my run.

Don't forget that your best friends while walking are an MP3 player and/or camera.

thanks dmpoole some encouraging points there.
the funny thing about all this is that i actualy have a massive sports complex in viewing distance from my house

but i dont fancy sport on my own and my best m8 has MS so thats out the window. So walking it is

SexyGreyFox · 29 Apr 2007 at 17:35

movingtables said:
thanks dmpoole some encouraging points there.
the funny thing about all this is that i actualy have a massive sports complex in viewing distance from my house

but i dont fancy sport on my own and my best m8 has MS so thats out the window. So walking it is

I have a massive Greens Gym which is 1/2 mile on my run and I always laugh at the people paying £40 a month when I run past. I've got a decent treadmill in my garage but theres nothing like getting out onto terra firma especially if you can find somewhere nice to go.

Invasion · 29 Apr 2007 at 18:42

Walking is excellent for weight loss! I cycle every other day around a local reservoir I set out from my house and go up round and back home about 20 miles. the other weekend we drove up in the car and walked round (10miles) nearly killed me much harder work than cycling.

Also I might have this wrong but I am sure read that keeping your heart rate in a certain band burns more fat, and if you work to hard your body uses carbohydrate and you burn less fat....somone correct me if I am wrong I well could be!

Regards

VaderDSL · 29 Apr 2007 at 18:48

If it wasn't for the 2.6 mile walk into work I would be a large lumbering blob

megatron · 29 Apr 2007 at 19:16

movingtables said:
Just wondering how effective walking IS for you?

Thursday I did 1 hours constant walking.

Sunday (today) I did a 40 minute constant walk.

all at medium pace.

I can't bring myself to do anything more energetic than walking lol.
So I'm just wondering how effect Is walking as a form of exercise.

Cheers chaps..

Its the best exercise, its low impact, its perfect. I cringe when I see joggers on the footpath and the amount of pressure which is going through the knees. Grass is for jogging.

SexyGreyFox · 29 Apr 2007 at 20:54

Invasion said:
Also I might have this wrong but I am sure read that keeping your heart rate in a certain band burns more fat, and if you work to hard your body uses carbohydrate and you burn less fat....somone correct me if I am wrong I well could be!

I mentioned that in the above post.

Aerobic exercise burns fat and anaerobic exercise burns carbs but builds muscle (obviously fats get burned also).

Calculating Your Aerobic Zone

The quick method is to take your age away from 220. Your maximum aerobic heart rate would be 80% of the figure and your minimum aerobic heart rate would be 60% of that figure.

Mine would be 220 - 49 = 171.
Max heart rate 171 x 80% = 137 bpm.
Min heart rate 171 x 60% = 103 bpm.

Even at my slowest I reach 160 bpm so you can see why I'm not training aerobically but I can run for one hour though

There is a more accurate way of calculating that uses your sleeping heart rate but the above is not far off.

DanH84 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:14

Surely running for 1 hour you'll be using your Oxygen based energy system?

you'll burn a higher proportion of fat at lower heart rates but your total calorie loss will often be higher with shorter periods of intense exercise plus there's the additional benefits for your metabolism.

There's a lot of debate with regards to steady state and high intensity interval training and while i lean more towards the latter for myself i think walking is a fantastic way to get started and a huge step up from doing nothing. So if walking is your thing then get to it and you'll soon notice the health benefits.

I know you say you don't feel like real intense exercise but why not try varying the pace at which you're walking. You could do 1 min fast paced followed by 1min more leisurely. Alternatively you could decrease the intervals and do lamp post to lamp post fast/slow.

Possibly you'll find that as your fitness increases you'll become more willing to perform more intense CV.