Perfecting Your Technique
Walking is no longer a vague activity without specific rules. Today fitness experts worldwide have researched exactly how much and how long one should walk to achieve optimal fitness goals. An hour of concentrated walking can make you burn a lot of calories. A study on walking published in the journal Sports Medicine, reported that people who clocked 10,000 steps throughout the course of the day (two hours of walking) were considered to be ‘active’.
For any exercise to be effective, it needs to be high impact. This means you need to get your heart pumping hard, so that your breathing quickens and you start to build up a sweat. A stroll at a leisurely pace will have no impact on your health and fitness. “For power walking you should not take long strides, but short and quick steps. You should always tuck in your tummy and tighten up your buttocks,” says fitness expert Sangeetha John. Walk fast enough in order to be out of breath by the time you finish. A rule of the thumb is to ensure that you are slightly out of breath but you should be able to carry on a conversation comfortably. Try and imagine that you are late for some important appointment or better still, imagine a mad dog chasing you.
When the ball of your foot (the rounded portion close to your heel) touches he ground first, it can support the weight of your body better than your toes or your instep. This ensures that you don’t end up tiring yourself.
