Marching Orders: How to Start a Walking Program

Walking with a friend or spouse can assist you keep on with your fitness goals. Image: Thinkstock Contents Keeping track If you could have 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 no less than 10,000 steps per day.

If you could have heart disease.

If you could have had a heart attack or have been diagnosed with heart disease, walking is a great exercise because you may easily adapt your routine to your fitness level. If you could have heart failure, ask your doctor to recommend a cardiac rehabilitation program so you may safely reap the advantages of exercise. This sort of supervised exercise is particularly helpful when you haven't been energetic shortly.

Whether you begin a walking program on your personal or with supervision, plan to begin slowly and work your way up to raised 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 when you 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 when you 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 amazing approach to start. You'll progressively 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 when you are in a little bit of a rush. Your respiration rate should increase, but you need to still have the option to talk in complete sentences. Pay attention to your posture—keep your head up, shoulders down and back, and abdominal muscles tight.