ZumeWalk - Walking for fitness

Not everyone can be a professional athlete but everyone can get fit and stay fit. The getting fit isn’t always easy but putting one foot in front of the other and walking out your front door is easy, then continue walking 5-6 days a week for life. You’ll be amazed how good you feel, how much weight you’ll lose and how the weight will stay off. The article, “No Athletic Talent? No Problem, appearing in the State-Journal.com written by Linda Younkin gives great perspective on a program of walking.

It’s turning into an active summer here at The State Journal. Hilly Schiffer and Phil Case have taken up (or rediscovered) running, and they’ve shared their experiences with our readers.

Jonathan Hines is playing tennis, and he often rides his bicycle to work. Chase Sewell is playing in a wooden bat baseball league.

And me?

Well, I’m … walking.

The activity that defined me as a toddler is still my favorite form of exercise.

There are so many things I like about walking for exercise. First, it takes no special talent – it’s something most of us have been doing for longer than we can remember.

It takes no special equipment, just a good pair of tennis shoes. You don’t need a teammate, an opponent, a training regimen, a playing field or a court. Just walk out your door, wearing your tennis shoes, and you’re good to go.

I’ve gone in fits and starts with walking for fitness during my lifetime, but five years ago when some test results after a physical suggested it was time to make some changes – “Eat less, move more,” my doctor said – I took off walking and haven’t stopped since.

Articles on using walking as exercise suggest stretching before you begin, alternating between a slower and quicker pace, especially when getting started.

I didn’t do any of that. I just went to the end of my driveway, turned left and made three trips around my subdivision, which took about 30 minutes.

Five years later I’m still walking that same route. I’m not sure how far that is, and I don’t really care. I’m more interested in how long I walk than how far.

There are days when it feels like I’m marching through molasses, but I keep going. There are days when I think I could go six laps around my neighborhood but I don’t.

I have an alternate route that takes about 45 minutes and I throw that in occasionally just for a change of pace and scenery, but not very often.

I try to walk every day but will settle for five times a week. I like to swim, and on days when I mow that definitely counts as exercise.

But again, both of those require a little more effort and equipment – a body of water and a swimsuit, or a lawnmower and a pair of tennis shoes that have been retired from walking and are so green from freshly mowed grass that they’re nearly black.

I don’t plug in to anything when I walk – I listen to my neighbors’ greetings, their dogs barking at me from the other side of fences, and to the geese flying back to the Game Farm, sometimes so low you can hear the whoosh of their wings as they pass right over my head.

I know for the most part which cats belong to which house, and it’s not unusual to spot a deer on my walk. Usually the deer and I spot each other at the same time and come to complete stops before I slowly start up again and they run away into some woods behind the subdivision.

I won’t walk on icy roads, and I won’t walk in a downpour although a light rain is tolerable. I’d rather walk when it’s 10 degrees out than 90 degrees, but I’ll walk in either extreme.

It helped keep me going that I lost weight quickly five years ago when I took up walking, and my motivation got a wake-up call this winter when I suffered a badly sprained right ankle that limited my walking from my house to my car, from my car to the office or from my car to a gym.

I regained a little weight then, just enough to remind me that walking really does work.

So that’s what I’m doing this summer.

I love watching sports but when it comes to participating, well .. I’ll just walk.

Please consult your physician before starting any exercise or weight loss program.
Your physician is your very best resource.