Like you're in a hurry but you're not, because actually you're just relaxing and enjoying your walk, though fast paced and breathing rapidly. If you regularly do a walk-fast routine like this especially early mornings, you're doing the safest, easiest and yet most effective workout in fitness history. The cheapest, too, because you don't need any equipment, gym membership or uniform for it, although some people like wearing special getups for it.
Photo by Sebastian Pociecha on Unsplash.
"Physical activity doesn't have to be complicated," according to Wanlapa Thongkham, a yoga teacher and martial arts instructor living in Thailand. "Walking at a brisk pace, even for just 10 minutes at a time, is one of the easiest, most effective and powerful ways to keep fit and stay strong, in body and mind. And it can easily fit into everyone's life, even on busy days."It's as easy and simple as hurrying up, but not the stressful fast walk of an employee trying to beat the clock because he's almost late for work. Brisk walking is fast but relaxed, controlled or regulated and no overstress. In fact, it's meditation in motion. How fast should it be?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States says, try a moderate yet intensified aerobic activity which "makes you sweat and raises your heart rate to the extent that you can still talk but not sing.” And don't sing early mornings when you're neighbors may still be sleeping.
Retired acupuncturist Dr Sadra Sraddha who is also a long time brisk walker from Indonesia, reminds us that, "The key is to maintain a pace that feels challenging, but not so fast that you are left breathless or exhausted. You are the best judge." Anyway, you're not doing it to win a competition or get a trophy. Just do it for fitness and health.
Walking Meditation
I combine brisk walking with walking meditation. It's simply walking fast while enjoying every minute of it, appreciating at the life you see around you. Absolutely no thoughts about work, school, problems, or anything that will disrupt your enjoyment of peace and quiet. An article in Greater Good in Action described walking meditation as a slow walk that takes note of one's surroundings. "This meditation involves very purposefully paying attention while very slowly doing a series of actions that you normally do automatically." Source
But since this blog is about fitness and how regardless of age and gender we should live life STILL FIT, we combine brisk walking with walking meditation. I know it's effective because it's what I do. I start out with leisurely walks as warm up (about 1 minute) and then increase my pace from there--until I'm almost breathless but still relaxed and comfortable. And as I do so, I watch nature and life as I go past them, even stopping now and then when I find something amusing.
There's a temptation to brisk walk in a race when you do it with a group, especially when those with you are trying to be better or stronger and younger than everyone else--and eager to prove it, to gain admiration. Don't brisk walk with them. It's better to do it alone and at your own pace than do it with people who always want to prove themselves better. Remember, when you brisk-walk-meditate you forget about everything--especially winning--and become aware of yourself and your environs, appreciating the details and the things we usually neglect and take for granted.
This kind of walking can launch you into the more complicated workouts as you progress in your fitness training, or you may stick with it to the end. I started out with leisurely walking, then brisk walking then brisk-walking-meditation before I went into rigid push-ups and weight training, plus Filipino martial arts.
THE AUTHOR
At 64, ChoySak is still fit and working out with simple weights, calisthenics, floor exercises, martial arts, and the great outdoors. By GOD's grace and mercy he has no maintenance medicines and his blood chemistry is normal. It's a big blessing to go on with life this length of time, still fit.
Email me at choyscut@gmail.com and get an email back in 20 or 30 seconds with a download link to the e-books, "My Simple Secrets to Fitness" (100 pages).
