INTRODUCTION TO FITNESS WALKING



INTRODUCTION TO FITNESS WALKING

Good health is more than just the absence of disease. Good health is influenced by your lifestyle, and reflects your state of mental, social, physical fitness, and well-being.

Walking, to stay fit, is an exercise you can do throughout your lifetime; anyone of any age, in almost any state of health can benefit from this easy exercise. Walking can help you lose weight and keep it off, increase the efficiency of your heart and lungs, keep you flexible while keeping you young, and help reduce stress.

You can make walking as interesting as you want it to be. Through the use of a pedometer and timer, you can actually see your progress. Maybe, you will want to use the odometer on your car to measure distance walked, or you might select a measured course. To keep walking exciting, change your terrain as often as you wish, but keep in mind distance and time. Take a friend along for encouragement, competition, and companionship… or even your dog!

Walking and your Heart

According to researchers, there is a direct link between regular brisk exercise and longevity. Heredity, life style, life circumstances, body weight and environment are also factors that have an impact on potential heart disease.

Clearly, walking helps the heart, blood, and blood vessels. Walking can increase the size of your blood vessels, and provide better and more efficient circulation. Also, the elasticity of the blood vessels is increased and may reduce their breaking under pressure.

Walking can increase the efficiency of the heart by making it pump more blood with fewer beats. You are supplying more oxygen to muscles and blood, so they are able to function more efficiently.

Walking is a positive way to a better quality of life and is something you can look forward to doing every day, if you wish.

Walking for Fitness

Walking for fitness is an aerobic activity if it increases your body’s need for oxygen. This increased need for oxygen required the heart to beat faster to circulate oxygen-enriched blood, and the respiratory rate to increase. If the demand for oxygen is not increased above the normal level, it is an anaerobic activity, not an aerobic one.

The purpose of any aerobic activity is cardiovascular (heart and blood vessel) fitness. In order to achieve cardiovascular fitness, the heart rate must be elevated to the target zone, maintained for a minimum of 18 minutes, at least 3 times a week. (3-5 times a week is the recommendation.)

AVERAGE RESTING HEART RATE: Men 72

Women 76

To determine target heart rate, we use the following formulas. They were established by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and take into account individual differences in sex, age, and present physical condition (as reflected in the resting heart rate).

FEMALES

226 226

- age - age

- resting heart rage - resting heart rate

x .7 . .8

+ resting heart rate + resting heart rate

LOWER TARGER HEART RATE UPPER TARGET HEART RATE

MALES

220 220

- age - age

- resting heart rate - resting heart rate

x .7 x .8

+ resting heart rate + resting heart rate

LOWER TARGET HEART RATE UPPER TARGET HEART RATE

If your working heart rate is not above the lower heart rate, you may still be burning calories and toning muscles, but not working hard enough to train your heart muscle. Two measures we use to assess cardiovascular fitness level are resting heart rate and heart recovery (the step test). Personal goals should include getting heart rates into the target zone and improving times.

To avoid dehydration you should drink water before, during, and after you exercise. If you wait until you feel thirsty, you have already begun to dehydrate.

Good walking shoes provide support through the arches, and a good cushion against impact. The soles are more flexible than running shoes, and should be tied (or Velcro) – no slip-ons.

WHAT IS YOUR HEART RECOVERY TIME?

Heart recovery times is the amount of time it takes for your heart to slow down after it has increased for exercise.

A simple step-test can assess your aerobic fitness and stamina. It will tell you how efficiently your heart and lungs feed oxygen to your body.

Be precise and do the step for exactly three minutes. The moment you stop, keep your eye on the second hand, and exactly 30 second after stopping, measure your pulse for the more seconds. This will give you your heart rate recovery score.

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?

Why are you walking? What would you like to do? Write it down, even if it seems unrealistic right now. These are your long-term goals. Once a week, take out the paper and look at it. Write down your progress and what seems to prevent you from achieving everything you want through walking.

COOL DOWN

Why? If you stop exercising suddenly, the body can suffer from shock. That is, the muscles may shorten and the result may be stiffness and loss of flexibility, and blood pools in the legs

1. Slow down your walking gradually

2. Use the following warm-ups to cool down. They will give the important muscle groups a mild stretch before rest.

• Knee and hip flex

• Knee hugs

• Ankle circles

3. Gradually increase the duration of each cool down exercise up to 30 seconds.

4. Heart rate should be below 100 beats per minute.

CONSIDERING “PROPER” WALING STYLE

1. Its good to keep your spine straight and hold your head high. Don’t exaggerate.

2. Allow arms to hang loosely at your sides. They will swing in the opposite action of your legs.

3. Keep your hands, hips, knees, and ankles relaxed.

4. Don’t worry about the length of you stride.

5. Each foot should strike the ground at your heel.

a. Weight is transferred from your heel along the outer border of your foot toward your toes.

b. Then, you push off with your toes to complete the foot strike action.

c. As you move from heel to toe, you will get a rolling motion.

d. Avoid landing flat-footed and on the balls of your feet. (Could cause leg and foot problems later.)

6. Breathe naturally

a. Keep your mouth open or closed, whatever is right for you.

b. The faster you go, the more air you will need. Help yourself…it’s free!

7. Don’t be so conscious of your style that you become tense. Relax and enjoy yourself.

8. You should also be able to hold a conversation with someone walking beside you. If not, you’re probably walking too fast for your age and fitness level. In other words, if you “huff and puff” as you walk, you’re probably going too fast. AS you progress in your program, you’ll be able to pick up the pace. This is known as “The Talking While You’re Walking Test:

9. Your walk should be painless. If you experience any chest, jaw, or back pain, slow down. If pain persists, see your doctor.

10. If, after walking, you seem excessively tired for an hour or more, the walk was too strenuous. Your walk should be exhilarating, not fatiguing.

CALORIES BURNED PER HOUR OF WALKING

The following chart will show you how many calories you can burn per hour when walking at two different speeds.

WALKING SLOWLY…means your normal pace

WALKING FAST…means you are trying to achieve an aerobic benefit

Keep in mind 3500 calories = one pound of body fat.

WEIGHT IN POUNDS WALKING SLOWLY WALKING FAST

95 130 206

100 137 217

105 144 228

110 150 238

115 157 249

120 164 260

125 171 271

130 178 282

140 191 303

150 205 325

160 219 347

170 232 368

180 246 390

190 260 412

200 273 433

210 287 455

220 301 477

230 314 498

POLAR HEART MONITORS

Why monitor heart rate?

Research shows that 18-20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise (working within you target heart rate) at least three times a week is essential to good health.

Measuring heart rate can be done in two ways:

A. Manually (palpitation)

Count the number of beats in a six second period and then multiply by 10 (or add a )) to get a minute rate. Use either the carotid artery in your neck or radial artery on your wrist.

B. Heart rate monitors

Measure the electrical activity of the heart. (Polar heart monitors are ECG accurate.)

Physiological changes that occur as you become more cardiovasculary fit:

• Heart becomes stronger

• Circulation improves

• Lower resting heart rate

• The heart stroke volume and volume per minute improve

• Heart’s ability to contract improves

• Muscle’s ability to utilize oxygen improves

• Oxygen intake capacity improves

• Ability to transport oxygen increases due to increase in red blood cells.

Other effects that prevent health problems:

• lower triglycerides

• Higher HDL (good) cholesterol levels

• Metabolism improves

• Secretion of adrenal hormones (stress) decreases with regular exercise

• Blood pressure is lowered

• Body fat decreases

Other benefits

• Muscular strength maintained or improved

• Stronger bones

• Joint working capacity may improve

|TARGET HEART RATE ZONES |

| |

|60 – 70 % efficient fat burning zone |

|*70 – 80% - Improvement of cardiovascular endurance |

|80 – 100% - competitive training |

| |

|*This is the level we aim for during our walking classes at CRHS. |

USE OF POLAR HEART MONITORS

Each student in class uses a heart monitor during walking. The purpose of using a monitor is so that each individual can monitor their heart rate during exercise and the amount of time it takes to complete each lap around the track. The goal is to reach the target zone on the first lap and then maintain for the remainder of laps. Each student is encouraged to remain constant or decrease their lap time. A good goal to strive for is 3:00 – 3:15 per lap. That signifies that you are walking at 5 miles per hour.

In order for the monitors to work correctly, a good skin to monitor contact is necessary. Check your monitor by looking for a flashing heart and heart rate number on the lower line in the stopwatch mode. Start the stopwatch when you begin walking and stop the stopwatch at the end.

It is important to understand what information is available in the recall mode.

TZ Means how much exercise time was above the target zone of 180.

TZ means how much exercise time was right in the target zone of 160 – 189. The goal is to have the entire time exercising total the entire time in zone.

TZ means how much exercise time was below the target zone of 160.

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