Walking might just be the next big thing in the fitness industry. I can see your looks of shock now. “But Jessie, how will that help me improve my fitness? Change my body? Have a lean physique?”. It will do all of these….and MORE. The more part is actually the best part, so stay tuned.
Low Level Cardio IS Beneficial and You NEED It
You can’t believe I’m saying it. Here’s the thing. Activities such as leisurely walking (I’m not talking about serious power walking, although that has it’s place) is fantastic for your health. It will help to:
1). Decrease anxiety/stress by increasing your time in a parasympathetic state (read: chilled out, relaxed, digest and rest).
2). Improve your cardiovascular function and help you recover faster during your intense anaerobic activities (intervals, hard training sets).
3). Have more restful, deeper sleeps.
4). Ultimately will keep your body leaner by burning extra calories through additional body movement + more importantly, decreasing stress.
These things all sound pretty damn good, right? Excuse me while I toss this computer aside and lace up.
“I Can’t Bust Through This Plateau”
Consider this, our lives these days are packed full of sedentary and lacking in the activity. Even if you do get regular physical activity and workouts in, is a lot of your day spent seated? How many hours a day are you sitting at your desk at work? How much time do you spend seated in your car on your daily commute? How much time are you seated feeding your newborn everyday? Adds up to a lot of hours probably.
You’re morning commute might be 30 minutes long + sitting at your desk for approximately 6-7 hours per day + 30 minutes long commute home + sitting on the couch for 2 hours at night to zone out in front of the TV = 10 hours of sitting everyday. Now figure out how many hours you’re spending actually participating in physical activities. You might be getting 3-4 workouts in a week that are 45 minutes – 1 hour long. At max you’re getting 4 hours of physical activity A WEEK. The ratio isn’t great, in fact it sucks.
So you’ve hit a plateau you just can’t seem to bust through? You’re consistently strength training and doing some metabolic conditioning (3-5 days per week). Adding in some extra low level activity through leisure walks might be exactly what you need to see some significant changes, NOT doing more intense physical activity. I repeat, not doing more intense physical activity.
The Stress-Fat Loss Connection
We’ve talked about this before, but scheduling in relaxation time will change your life for the better (read this post on my favourite ways to relax HERE). Relaxation is an essential, overlooked part of the fat loss equation. Work hard but rest harder, will you please?
You might have heard of the connection between stress hormones and stubborn fat that you just can’t lose? Chronic high stress can mean you have constantly elevated levels of cortisol and catecholamine – stress hormones. Now, increased levels of cortisol are necessary during exercise sessions for fat-burning and muscle gaining but too much leads to growth of fat cells. We want the hours and day(s) after high intensity exercise to lower stress hormones. Which is where walking comes in. Walking done leisurely lowers cortisol levels because it relaxing.
Your Walking Prescription
Don’t think of walking as “exercise” necessarily. It’s meant to be leisurely, at a pace where you can keep easy conversation. Bonus points If you can get outdoors for your walks. Try for 30-60 minutes everyday or at least on days you’re not training, 5000-10000 steps per day (can be spread out over the day or done at once). If you’re on a treadmill stick to a pace of 3.5 or less.
WALK ON!
JMG
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