Marching Orders: How to Start a Walking Program

Walking with a friend or spouse can enable you to stick with your fitness goals. Image: Thinkstock Contents Keeping track If you’ve gotten heart disease. Two months for a goal Start walking.

This easy activity is top-of-the-line ways to guard your heart.

Keeping track

Start by tracking your steps from while you get up within the morning until you go to bed at night. Average your total steps for 2 or three days, then aim to extend your day by day total to about 1,000 to 2,000. Each week, increase your steps by the identical amount until you reach a minimum of 10,000 steps per day.

If you’ve gotten heart disease.

If you’ve gotten had a heart attack or have been diagnosed with heart disease, walking is a really perfect exercise because you’ll be able to easily adapt your routine to your fitness level. If you’ve gotten heart failure, ask your doctor to recommend a cardiac rehabilitation program so you’ll be able to safely reap the advantages of exercise. This form of supervised exercise is particularly helpful if you happen to haven't been energetic shortly.

Whether you begin a walking program on your personal or with supervision, plan to start out slowly and work your way up to higher fitness—and follow these safety suggestions:

• Always warm up with a straightforward five-minute walk to get your muscles and heart ready for exercise. Finally, cool down by slowing down.

• Don't push through fatigue. Stop if you happen to feel drained or have any heart symptoms.

• Take a walk in an indoor shopping center if it's too cold, too snowy, or too hot to exercise outside. Ask your doctor if you happen to should take any extra precautions.

Two months for a goal

If you haven't been exercising, eight weeks of exercise (see “Start Walking”) is an incredible option to start. You'll regularly increase the period of time you walk, as much as the really useful 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week. It means walking briskly, as if you happen to are in a little bit of a rush. Your respiratory rate should increase, but you must still give you the option to talk in complete sentences. Pay attention to your posture—keep your head up, shoulders down and back, and abdominal muscles tight.