This post is about walking/running for people who never have run before or with very little running experience. The reason you should walk/run in the beginning is that your bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles need to slowly and gradually get used to being active since they may have been inactive for a long time. So, walking helps to prepare for a load of running and this is the aim of 5 successful methods of walking to improve fitness.
The Importance of Oxygen To Improve Your Fitness
As you probably know, every single cell in the body requires a constant supply of oxygen. Oxygen is absorbed into the blood via the lungs and then transported out and around in the whole body through a system of blood vessels.
The largest are the arteries and veins and the smallest are the capillaries. Both fitness and diet affect how efficiently the individual’s oxygen supply system works.
Over time, accumulates plaque so it eventually can block the supply of oxygenated blood to larger organs such as the heart, brain and muscles. If the heart gets too little oxygen, it can result in a heart attack.
In case of a heart attack, the heart stops for a moment but regains its rhythm when the oxygen supply is restored. However, if the oxygen supply is cut off long enough, it can lead to a blood clot in the heart.
Another consequence of poor blood circulation can be to cutting off the blood supply to the brain and thus causing a blood clot in the brain. In a mild case of a blood clot in the brain, parts of the brain die simply due to a lack of oxygen. Which can lead to paralysis or loss of certain functions. A more serious blood clot in the brain can be fatal.
Walking For Successful Health
Good fitness makes you healthier and prevents blood clots. The blood vessels usually accumulate less plaque when the fitness is good than when it is bad, and this gives a lower risk of blood clots in the heart and brain.
Besides, a person who exercises regular walking will generally improve his or her blood circulation, in part by making the walls of the blood vessels more flexible so that the heart does not have to work as hard to pump blood around the body. The result is that even though there may be clots in the blood vessels, the blood circulation around these clots will improve.
Walk Fit
As you begin to walk regularly, the number of capillaries in your muscles will increase – the small blood vessels that supply nutrients and remove waste products from the cells – and so will the number of mitochondria, which are the power stations in the cells that produce energy. As well as the enzymes in these mitochondria, which enable to increase the aerobic capacity (with oxygen).
Exercise also stimulates the production of endorphins, which are the body’s own painkillers. The endorphins are remarkably similar to morphine, and there is much to suggest that people become addicted to running because they become addicted to this endorphin rush! Moderate exercise also seems to stimulate the immune system, by improving the function of T – cells.
These T-cells are the army ants of your immune system. They invade and kill uninvited guests. Finally, training has a calming effect on stress.
The training does this by enabling the body to break down the stress hormone adrenaline faster. Adrenaline is one of nature’s double-edged swords. Adrenalin is vital when dealing with a crisis, but consumes energy if there is too much of it or if it stays for too long in the system. Improved regulation of the body’s adrenaline content is another possible health benefit of training.
Walkfit app
So, there are many benefits to just walking to better fitness and today there is an app to manage your progress called walkfit. With this app, You can choose a walking challenge, set daily goals for walking, follow a fitness plan, and burn calories! Start with just a few steps a day and you’ll start to see results very fast.
Walking/Run a Great Method To Improve Fitness
As we know now regular exercise is a good incentive to keep a healthier lifestyle – eating food with low-fat content, making sure you get enough rest, skipping cigarettes – because it makes it more comfortable to exercise. Training can also be a crucial factor in keeping the weight down.
Many people seem to gain weight as they get older. Some believe that it is because the metabolism slows down with age, others believe that the only reason the metabolism slows down is that people become less active as they get older. But what we know with certainty is that a regular exercise program – combined with healthy eating – can help most people fight the extra pounds
However, there is a small bonus included for people who exercise. Even if you do not have weight problems, more exercise (i.e. burning more calories) provides space in the diet for more of what you like to eat and which would otherwise add more to the waist, hips, or buttocks.
Raise your self-esteem by walking for a better fitness
People who are in good shape have higher self-esteem, partly because they look better and partly because they have greater confidence in their abilities to be active. Perhaps that is what forms the basis of the assumption that people who stay in shape are better lovers!
Getting in shape will in any case make you stronger, so you will feel like participating in more physical activities. If you’re one of those people who shrink in fear when one of the kids suggests taking a walk in the park and playing some football.
Getting in shape can not only improve your life but also your children’s. Active parents foster a more active lifestyle in their children, not just while they are young, but in all the years to come.
Try Walking/Run With Others
As a beginner, there are many great benefits to running or walking with others. Therefore, it is an advantage that you start running training in a community and preferably in a running club, where experienced runners and instructors can give you good advice during the training process.
However, it will be a good idea to find a community that has the same starting point as yourself, which is very often the case in most running clubs, where runners are divided into groups according to the running experience.
Otherwise, you risk getting too little out of the training and maybe losing the desire and motivation to continue. Fortunately, as I said, there are many running clubs and running projects that allow you to find just the right offer.
Some of the best benefits of running in a community are:
- Regular training courses with training programs
- Common goal setting
- Social relationships with other runners
- Mutual motivation and binding agreements
- Opportunity to walk/run
- Instructor assistance
Disadvantages of running in a community could be:
- Fixed training times
- General training programs that may not be specific to you
- The risk that your optimal pace does not match the pace of the group
- It can be difficult to follow the group’s training program if you are outside for a period, e.g. due to injuries
- Subscription
From Walking to Running
If you choose to start yourself, perhaps because you have changed your working hours, or because there is no running club nearby, you will need extra resources to plan your running training properly. Of course, this can be done, but it requires some background knowledge about running training and time for planning.
Alternatively, you can use a personal instructor or Coach, who accompanies you along the way with good advice and training programs. Be careful not to follow random beginner training programs uncritically as they may not necessarily fit your starting point.
Benefits of running alone:
- Independent of fixed training times
- Independent of others
- Training program tailored to you and your goals
- Opportunity to run at the pace that suits you exactly
- Opportunity to organize the training program along the way if you e.g. get an injury.
Possible disadvantages of running alone:
- No instructor helps on the runs
- No motivating support on the runs
- No binding agreements with others
- The workout can easily feel monotonous
- Expensive if you choose to use a personal instructor or Coach to plan and manage your running training
Overweight and Walking
Being overweight is basically no obstacle to running, but several precautions should be followed. You should first consult a doctor about the weight problems and in what way they limit you before starting the running training as a Walk / Run procedure.
Especially if you are severely overweight. Your doctor can quickly assess whether your body can keep running. Perhaps the doctor will recommend that you start with a sport that is not so stressful for the body.
It can e.g. be swimming or cycling, where you sit down and do not load the body with the many shocks from running. It may be in combination with walking and running. You can start by using a combined walk/running program like this: 10 weeks combined walk/running program from Runners world.
If you start running training, you should start with a low-level program. With a walking program that is not so stressful for the knees, back, various joints, bones and tendons.
Over a period, you can then speed up the running training and suddenly you are a runner. You should not expect a major weight loss in the beginning because the relatively short workouts do not result in a significantly greater calorie burn.
Furthermore, running training means that existing adipose tissue is replaced by muscle tissue, which weighs more than adipose tissue.
From Walking Fitness To Running Fitness
The body thus becomes stronger, but it will not necessarily be possible to see it on the weight at the beginning of the course. On the other hand, you will probably feel healthier, in a better mood, have a good conscience and gain greater self-esteem.
Often you hear beginners tell that they cannot see the difference in weight, but that they can see the difference in the mirror. As an alternative to weight, you can therefore choose to follow your development in other ways, e.g. by following the fat percentage or waist measurement, etc. over time.
Later, when running has become a routine for you, running combined with other factors such as diet and sleep will be a good ingredient in a lifestyle change, including losing weight and/or keeping the weight down.
This is not the least because muscle tissue burns far more calories than adipose tissue. So, it will get easier to burn calories as your body replaces adipose tissue with muscle tissue.
Final Thoughts
Everyone can start exercising, it all depends on starting from where you are – your current shape. Some of us start with 15 – 20 minutes 2 times a week with a combination of walking for 2-3 minutes and a couple of minutes of running.
In that way, you can find out what suits you and what pace suits your fitness level. The breath is a good measure of whether you exert yourself too much or too little.
To hit a leisurely pace, you should not run faster than you can have a conversation. If you can talk endlessly without gasping for air, you do not make enough effort. If, on the other hand, you have to catch your breath for every other word, you run too fast and have to slow down.
With this rule of thumb as a limit to how fast you should run in the beginning, you can gradually increase the period you run within the next few weeks and shorten the time you walk.
I hope you get something out of this post and if you have any questions about the topic or want to leave your own Personal review, please leave a comment below.
Oh wow, this is a great read, thank you for your post. This really helps explain why I could not just jump back into my usual activities like running when I have been pretty inactive for a long period of time (3 to 4 months). I just assumed that because I was able to run with ease before, I can just go back into it right away. I mean, there is that out of shape period, but did not realize I would need to take it easy and not expect an overnight (or several) return to my prime days. This is a great reminder that I need to be more consistent with my physical activity, and just the thought of blood clots terrify me.
Hi Mike
Thank you for the comment. The body adapts to what it’s exposed to and if it is not used for a long period of time it loses its strength and health. So, it will be a good idea to maintain a good and constant exercise routine a few times a week to keep a certain strength and health.
Be Well
I love walking in our neighborhood early in the morning. It gives me time to savor the beauty of our place and time to plan how would I go through the day. I feel more relaxed, refreshed and ready to engage in my daily activities afterward.
For me, more than the physical fitness that it would give me, walking will always be the best way to take care of my wellbeing because it gives me the calmness and good disposition that we all needed in life. With the fast and demanding world we are living now, this activity helps me to slow down.
Hi Joy
Thank you for the comment. It’s a good story you have here and it seems that you have found your special way of reflecting on starting your day.
Be Well