I tend to keep up with industry trends. I am a member of IDEA (doesn’t really stand for anything). They have a great magazine with a lot of fitness info.
Recent studies – with a dozens of participants – showed that if we get 150 minutes of exercise a week, we are in the best shape, health wise. The researchers found that vital signs looked better after a program of 150 minutes of strenuous exercise. You know, Cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.
Need a Nordic Walking Class? – sign up with ANWA
Don’t fret….that’s only 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. I like to take a mid-week day off to rest. Some days I’ll do 90 minutes to get it over with.
Picking the pace up with Nordic Walking
By “strenuous” they don’t mean casually walking the dog around the block. For us Nordic Walkers, they want us to walk briskly – get your heart rate up. Easy to do for just a half hour. I hope you are going longer. Focus on time – not distance. A watch is a better gauge.
If you use a fitbit tracker to get your 10,000 steps a day…good … if it really motivates you with a goal.
But those might be “lolly-gag” steps. Walk like you are trying to catch a bus that is about to leave. Don’t run – remember your knees. They also found that fitbits don’t really lead to weight reduction. I say that a $9.99 basic pedometer is sufficient. $100 for a digital device can be spent on new poles, or gloves, or water battles. Make the And not OR. But you decide.
Vacuuming no longer counts – despite an earlier study that was debunked. And don’t forget cross training. I’ll talk about that in a future blog.
So “Hit the road, Jack.”
Carpe Diem