Marching Orders: How to Start a Walking Program

Walking with a friend or spouse can provide help to stick with your fitness goals. Image: Thinkstock Contents Keeping track If you will have heart disease. Two months for a goal Start walking.

This easy activity is among the finest ways to guard your heart.

Keeping track

Start by tracking your steps from whenever 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 every day total to about 1,000 to 2,000. Each week, increase your steps by the identical amount until you reach not less than 10,000 steps per day.

If you will have heart disease.

If you will have had a heart attack or have been diagnosed with heart disease, walking is a super exercise because you possibly can easily adapt your routine to your fitness level. If you will have heart failure, ask your doctor to recommend a cardiac rehabilitation program so you possibly can safely reap the advantages of exercise. This variety of supervised exercise is very helpful for those who haven't been lively shortly.

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

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

• Don't push through fatigue. Stop for those who 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 for those who should take any extra precautions.

Two months for a goal

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