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AND FITNESS TIPS Winterize Your Workout - How to dress and indoor alternatives for bad weather days. 10,000 Steps - How many steps do you walk a day? The Battle With the Scale - Throw away the scale Your Target Heart Rate - How to calculate your target heart rate Tips For Walking Faster - Use good walking form to increase your speed News Flash... Walking is Good For You... Sometimes I get rather aggravated at the media. It seems that they can make headlines out of anything. I sat down after a long day, to relax and wait for the 10:00 news. Every time a commercial break came on they were doing their little "spiel" for the upcoming news. In it was a blurb about walking for health. I can't help myself. I am the sarcastic type. I turned to my husband each time "Did you know that walking is good for you?" When the story aired I was ready to continue with my sarcasm, but what they said was indeed news. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows walking as little as an hour a week can make a difference. Women that walk 60 minutes a week can decrease their risk of heart disease by 50%. (I guess the study was only done on women.) They stated that it doesn't matter whether the walking is all in one session or six 10 minute sessions. It doesn't even matter what pace you walk. Just do it. Now, I am not saying to cut back to 60 minutes a week. And I am not saying that you can lose all that body fat with this type of walking. I am however reaching out to those of you that are all or nothing walkers. You know who you are. If you don't have time to do the plan of your dreams you might as well just sit on the couch. No! Do what you can when you can, and make your goal one of living longer and healthier. Vary your routine for the best results... If you are no longer seeing results from your walking program try varying your routine. Your body will get accustomed to the same routine day after day. If you are trying to lose weight and have hit a plateau try something different. Add a longer walk a couple of days, walk at a higher pace one or two days week, try adding intervals, or skip the walk one day and enjoy a long bike ride. Remember - quality not quantity for great abs... Do you do 100 crunches a day and see little result? Here are some things you should know: Abs are just like any other muscle - they need rest between workouts. Try working your abs every other day instead. Quality is much more important than quantity. Try doing fewer reps, but focus on form. Also slow down your reps, don't let momentum do the work for you. You need to do a variety of crunches or exercises to target the various ab muscles. You may never see those abs under that layer of fat. If you really want great abs, you must eat right and get in plenty of aerobic / fat burning activity. Setting small goals... When you are just getting started on a fitness program it can be a little overwhelming. All you know is "I want to lose weight" or "I need to get fit." You think you need a goal so you decide that your goal is to lose 20, 30, or 40 lbs. AND this goal seems so unreachable. IT IS NOT! You can reach your goal, but the way to do it is through reaching many small goals. Start out with daily or weekly goals. Something like I will work out for 20 minutes 4 times this week, or I will be sure to drink at least 8 glasses of water today. Write down your goal and check it off when completed. Believe me those check marks feel good. Each time you accomplish one of these small goals it motivates you to do more. It will keep you on track and eventually you will reach your long term goal. So what is your goal TODAY??
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