Walking: Here’s a golden nugget for your back pocket: By walking just two miles per day, a person can reduce the likelihood of catching a cold in half. Even more inspiring are statistics which show that regular walking can significantly reduce premature death from disease.
Many of us who incorporate physical fitness into our schedules will invest hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars each year on gym memberships while conveniently driving in our cars to get there. However, one of the best fitness routines we can afford ourselves is simply to place one foot in front of the other.
Walking our way through life is personally empowering, free of charge, great for the cardiovascular, lymphatic and nervous systems, removes lactic acid from the body while it neutralizes our PH balance, develops muscle tone, expands lung capacity, and is a great way to slenderize the body!
When you think about it, walking is one of the most romantic personal ventures you can engage in on a daily basis! Walking in nature is especially inspiring and life-giving. As you walk and breathe deeply, the lungs are expanded to welcome fresh prana (life energy) to invigorate the cells and bathe the spirit in an intimate communion with the plant and animal kingdom. Walking, whether in nature, or on the way to work, provides a perfect opportunity for self reflection, stress relief and an appreciation for this symbolic act of "moving forward" in life. This life-giving practice thus becomes youth building!
There are endless modifications that can be added to your walking practice! Swinging extended arms in a circular fashion, lunging, skipping, walking backwards and side to side or simply grooving to some favorite I-tunes makes the ritual of walking a fun experience.
Core Fitness: There are many methods for integrating core fitness techniques into any exercise or yoga program. Incorporating focused core exercises while walking is a user-friendly way to strengthen your core muscles on a daily basis. From a metaphysical standpoint, core fitness while walking provides a powerful metaphor for moving forward in life from the strength of your core.
Who can benefit from strengthening their core? Athletes can greatly improve their performance with improved core strength, but core fitness is for everyone-even the most sedentary among us. Once a muscle imbalance is corrected through core strengthening, each muscle group better performs their unique tasks. Power and control noticeably improves while pain impacted by poor joint alignment and muscle imbalance significantly reduces. Those who exercise use their major muscles with greater ease and a reduced risk of joint problems later in life.
Noted benefits of core fitness: The areas of the back and the knees can be freed and protected from low grade strain by strengthening the core. With these foundational areas supported, one can achieve greater strength and flexibility using other parts of the body. Doing activities such as lifting heavy objects, participating in challenging sports--even enduring long drives in the car can be done so with greater ease and a decreased risk of injury.
How to start: There are many great methods for strengthening the core such as Pilates, yoga and basic exercises such as sit ups. To develop core strength while walking, you can rhythmically inhale and on a strong exhale, compress the abdomen and hold for the count of 5 and release (do with the breath 10x), rest the abdomen and repeat the process 3 times. Also, lunging while walking involves the use of core muscles and adds a fun component to your walking program!
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