Lesson 4: Into the Future
Increasing the pace.
Dogs and other activities.
Fit for Life.
In this lesson, we will look at extension and consolidation, and how you can parlay your new activities to help you become fit for life.
Increasing the Pace
Increasing the pace of your walks is one way of extending your fitness. Any increase should be done gradually, over days or, if necessary, weeks. Look at it this way: too-speedy increases lead to injury, and recovery time sets you back.
Increasing the pace of your walk is beneficial if you want an extra challenge. So is increasing the distance you cover, and the time you take for your walks. According to "Walking: Fitness & Health Through Everyday Activity", most fat-burning occurs after you have been walking for forty-five minutes, so if one of your goals is weight loss, more sustained sessions will obviously work better for you.
Another possibility is increasing the difficulty of terrain. Walking uphill lifts your heart rate and helps to tone and strengthen muscles in your back and legs.
Warning on Hill Walking.
Walking downhill does cause added stress to muscles and joints, so you should always walk downhill at a moderate pace, taking care not to jar your feet and knees. The scientific explanation of why this is so is covered in "Walking: Fitness & Health Through Everyday Activity".
Muscles build and tone rather faster than ligaments and tendons, so increasing your pace/distance/terrain too quickly can cause pain or injury.
Increasing Jogging/Running.
Increasing the pace and/or distance you jog or run is also something to take slowly. If you find yourself out of breath or dizzy or otherwise distressed, always slow down or walk for a while. Jogging for health is not about exhaustion, but about covering a good distance in a good time and finishing in good order. Remember your age, size and sex will all have something to do with your speed and stamina. So will genetics. Measure your performance against your own efforts, not against what someone else can do.
Increasing Weight Training.
When you can run through the exercises in Lesson Three without stopping for breath or to flex your arms, then it is time to increase the load. This can be achieved in two ways. Either continue the same number of reps using heavier weights, or use the same weights and increase the number of reps. Lifting more weight tends to build up muscle, while doing more reps with light weights tends to tone existing muscle. Don't increase the intensity or duration of weight training too quickly. An injury can set you back for weeks.
Maintaining New Muscle.
After a few weeks of walking or running and weight training, you will have toned your muscles and begun to build extra muscle tissue. This will probably become obvious only if and when you flex your arms or tighten your calves, but it will be easily detected by feel. To maintain this gain you need to continue your exercises, but if you do stop for two or three weeks, you will find it easy to regain your tone. Never take up your exercise at the intensity at which you left off. Ease back into it gradually.
Reasons for Stopping.
You should stop your exercises if you catch a cold or flu. If you injure yourself you should certainly wait until you heal. If the weather is spectacularly bad you shouldn't walk, although you can do your weight training in the house. If you are depressed or grieving or just plain angry with life you should see if exercise makes you feel better or worse. Don't risk walking or weight training if your concentration is badly impaired. You should also avoid weight training if you have small children or animals underfoot.
Evaluation
Optional Reading
To find out how to evaluate your progress, turn to Page 58 of "Walking: Fitness and Health Through Everyday Activity", by Dr Klaus Bos and Joachim Saam.
