The Oldest and Easiest Workout...

Walking is practically a basic life function considering how much of it we have to do in our day to day routines. Likewise, it is exceptionally productive at a cardiovascular level. On an extracurricular level, we should make a point to walk more because of its effectiveness as a workout. It is convenient, easily accessible and great for people who experience difficulty moving because of physical limitations and joint issues that prohibit them from higher intensity exercises. Long and short, it is a great starting point.

I would like to note the importance of good shoes and appropriate clothing for working out. Shoes should be athletic in nature as these provide more support and comfort, especially as you progress to longer workouts. Arch support, heel padding and wide versus narrow fit are also considerations that can have a great effect on your workout. Fortunately, there are shoe stores specifically for athletes and workout enthusiasts and their entire function is to provide you with the best possible shoe on the basis of your style of workout (walking, running, sports, etc) AND based on measurements of your foot. It is actually a very involved process that these stores take a great deal of pride and seriousness in. Runtex is a perfect example of this kind of store.

Clothing should be vented and loose fitting. Special care should be taken as colder temperatures will affect the way we dress. As the temperature drops we should dress in loose layers if we intend to workout outdoors. As our core temperature rises from our workout, tighter fitting clothing inhibits evaporation and keeps the sweat closer to our skin. That sweat sitting on our skin will then cool with the ambient temperature and cause us a GREAT deal of discomfort, pain and possible injury. In the Army we referred to this as a cold weather casualty. It will take you right out of the game.

Now, our goal is to aim high. Walking to the end of the driveway and back is what we do to check the mail. Walking around the block is what we do to start. Walking around the block twice is what we do to turn it up a bit. And so on and so on.

As I mentioned before, your basic life functions are fueled by fat. These lower heart-rate functions are performed every day for hours on end. Unfortunately, we can't lose weight by blinking our eyes. We simply want our metabolism to go from an eye-blink to snowball and as we progress that snowball gets bigger and faster.

Now, you may have wondered at some point, how do we know how many calories we are burning? Understanding this basic concept will make the process a whole lot simpler and that demystification is important in calculating dietary needs in relation to energy expenditure. It goes like this:

TECHNICAL MUMBO-JUMBO At rest, you are functioning at 1 MET. A MET is a measurement of cardiovascular work (simple explanation) and it is based on the amount of oxygen you are consuming during work. 1 MET is equivalent to: 3.5 ml of oxygen per kg of bodyweight per minute.

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