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Turn your walk into a workout!

Dec 17, 2020

With summer upon us, many people (myself included) will be spending a lot more time outdoors enjoying the hot sun and clear skies. There is already a noticeable increase in people going for a walk or run early in the mornings and in the evenings. Walking with purpose is a great way to improve or maintain your overall health. While improving or maintaining cardiovascular fitness, walking can reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and mental health disorders. While many of us are guilty of spending too much time on our bums and on our backs, spending more time on our feet performing weight-bearing activities with moderate to high intensity helps to slow down bone loss and aging.

The key, however, is walking with purpose. Walking at a slow leisurely pace, although still beneficial, will not see you gain the most out of your time in the sun. Unless sickness or injury inhibits you should aim to walk at a brisk pace, faster than you would if you were walking around the house or going shopping – although I have seen some impressive power-walkers at the local Westfield. Walking with intensity gets your heart working harder and will lead to greater changes in your aerobic fitness and cardiovascular health.

If you’re already a pro at walking with purpose, you can take this one step further and introduce some bodyweight exercises along your walk. Depending on how far or how long you walk you can set yourself some stops or stations along the way. An easy way to do this is set a timer for your walk. Set a timer for 3-5 minutes depending on how long you intend to walk for. Every 3-5 minutes stop and perform high repetitions of an exercise/exercises before continuing. This will be sure to increase your heart rate and build strength and endurance in your muscles.

Example Walk Plan

Walk Duration: 20 Minutes

Every 4 minutes stop and perform:

  • 12 Squats
  • 12 Lunges
  • 12 Star Jumps

Aim to perform each repetition with quality and complete exercises one after another with little to no rest. Your walk will then become your “active recovery” period. Suddenly you have yourself a cardio workout plan built around your morning/evening walk. The same program can be adjusted if you decided to go for a run. Throwing in some body weight exercises during your walk can help you maximise the short time you have to walk the dog or clear your head. So, the next time you go for a walk, why not turn it into a workout!

If you have been limited to walking because of sickness or injury, please make sure you seek clearance from your GP and relevant health professionals before attempting to increase your activity levels. If that happens to be the case, our team of qualified Exercise Physiologists at Absolute Balance are well equipped to prescribe effective, outcome-based exercise programmes to assist in your rehabilitation and ensure safe exercise progression. You can contact us at info@absolutebalance.com.au

 

Bastien Auna

Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AES, AEP) (ESSAM)

 

References

Lee, I. (2007). Dose-Response Relation Between Physical Activity and Fitness.  JAMA ,  297 (19), 2137. doi: 10.1001/jama.297.19.2137

Murtagh, E., Murphy, M., & Boone-Heinonen, J. (2010). Walking: the first steps in cardiovascular disease prevention.  Current Opinion in Cardiology ,  22 (5), 490-496. doi: 10.1097/hco.0b013e32833ce972

Murphy, M., Nevill, A., Neville, C., Biddle, S., & Hardmann, A. (2002). Accumulating brisk walking for fitness, cardiovascular risk, and psychological health.  Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise ,  34 (9), 1468-1474. doi: 10.1097/00005768-200209000-00011

Walking for health and longevity

16 May, 2024
A recent study investigated how the number of steps we walk each day affects our chances of living longer. Researchers completed a meta-analysis (collecting many studies and looking at the combined results), that measured step counts and compared it to people's all-cause mortality (risk of dying from any cause). They looked at seven trials with over 28,000 individuals and discovered that for every 1,000 extra steps completed each day, the all-cause mortality rate fell by around 12%. They also investigated if factors such as the location of the research or the age of the participants affected the results, they found no statistically significant differences. Taking more steps generally reduces your chance of death. Walking 16,000 steps per day was associated with a 66% lower risk of all-cause mortality when compared to walking only 2,700 steps. To put it another way, walking only 2,700 steps per day was linked to a 3x increased risk of death compared to walking 16,000 steps. Before leaping to conclusions, keep in mind that just because those who walk more tend to live longer doesn't mean that walking directly makes you live longer. It's possible that healthy people are naturally more active. However, some other studies have shown that even moderate walking programs can benefit a variety of health indicators, once again implying that walking more may help you live longer. In the meta they also compared some well-known causes of all-cause mortality, smoking and obesity against walking. It was surprising to see that walking only 2,700 steps a day had a greater effect on mortality with a 200% increased risk, than smoking or even obesity at 70-80% increased risk and 74% increased risk at a 40 BMI respectively. So, while going to the gym, lifting weights and doing classes to staying healthy is defiantly beneficial, this study emphasises the value of simply moving more in your daily life. Even if you have a busy schedule or live in an area that is not conducive to walking, finding strategies to increase your daily steps could lead to a longer, healthier life. References: Leuphρων, R. (2014, August 11). How many steps/day are enough? For adults. PubMed (original PMID: 21798015, PMCID: PMC3197470, DOI: 10.1186/1479-5868-8-79)

A 3-Minute Snapshot of a Move Across the Country

10 May, 2024
“Failure is a bend in the road, not the end of the road. Learn from failure and keep moving forward.” Roy T. Bennett Hypothetically, if I asked you to move to the other side of the country, to a new landscape, new work environment, and to the unknown, what would your answer be? In August 2023, I answered “F**k, yes”, and I want to take you through a journey of learnings, maturity, and growth that only saying “yes” can get you. Fast forward to the 15 th of October 2023, after packing a sea container with belongings, selling my car, and booking a one-way flight to Brisbane, Queensland, I was set. With all the back-end tasks out of the way, I was taking off to what was about to become the most uncomfortable (and horrifying) period of my life. Different city, different lifestyle unfamiliar people, even more unfamiliar landscapes, more responsibility, more opportunities. These were the thoughts rushing through my head while on a one-way trip to my next chapter. And it didn’t take long before the wheels were turning, and I was finding my feet, well, only as quickly as one can after venturing into their uncomfortable. I was thrusted into a new and exciting work environment, with an opportunity to build brand and self-awareness in a new state and legislation. I very quickly realised that I was so far out of my comfort zone, that I wasn’t even sure what zone I was in anymore. “Where do I start? What do I do? Who do I speak to?” Are all rationale thoughts to have, and looking back now, I can safely say that I felt out of my depth, lost, and overwhelmed with the road ahead. Through the motion of failure, and my not so successful trials, I have become far more resilient, confident, mature, I have learnt not to fear rejection but embrace it, I have adopted a mindset where “no” is a conversation starter, not a finisher. Through all this my ability to treat clinically, build relationships, and produce positive outcomes has improved. The journey has been challenging, but so incredibly worth it. I am becoming more comfortable with the uncomfortable and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Lachlan Simpson Workers Compensation Specialist (AEP, ESSAM) Exercise Rehabilitation Services ‑ QLD

We live in a 3D world, it's time to start training that way!

By Alison Absolute Balance • 24 Apr, 2024
The human body is designed to move in a three-dimensional plane divided into the following segments: Sagittal Plane: Cuts the body into left and right halves. Forward and backward movements. Frontal Plane: Cuts the body into front and back halves. Side to side movements. Transverse Plane: Cuts the body into top and bottom halves. Twisting/rotational movements. Too often we get caught training mostly in a sagittal plane, think running, squats, bicep curls etc. While these are all good exercises, in day-to-day life we don’t only move along a sagittal plane. What happens when you need to quickly get out of the way of the e-scooter flying towards you on the foot path or make a quick sidestep to avoid a pothole – these movements are along the frontal plane. While movements such as turning to check your blind spot while driving or turning to talk to the person next to us are in the transverse plane. When it comes to injury prevention and movement efficiency it is important to incorporate exercises from all planes of movement into training programs. Sagittal If a line ran down the middle of the body splitting it from left to right, movements parallel to this line are within the sagittal plane of movement. The sagittal plane is the most common plane of movement and is trained overwhelming more than the frontal and transverse planes of movement. Movements/exercises considered to be in the sagittal plane include running, squats, deadlifts and bicep curls. Now while all these exercises are good, with the way our lives having evolved into many desk sitting roles, driving from place to place etc, to then go to the gym and focus heavily on movements that are predominantly up – down, and forwards – backwards we can end up reinforcing these pathways and becoming somewhat robotic, heavily limiting our natural movements. Frontal If a line ran down the middle of the body splitting it into front and back, movements parallel to this line would be within the frontal plane of movement – essentially any movement that involves moving away from or towards the midline. Often neglected in strength programs, frontal plane exercises include Cossack squats, lateral lunges, and side raises. Transverse If a line split the body in half separating it into top and bottom with the pelvis being the point of division, any movement parallel to this line would be considered to be in the transverse plane of movement. Movement along/through a transverse plane is generally more rotational such as a Russian twist or trunk twist. By focussing largely on sagittal plane movements, we are risking developing muscle imbalances, limited mobility and uncoordinated movements in the neglected planes. Our body is designed to move on a 3-dimensional plane so make sure to train in a way that will allow it to move the way it’s supposed to. Katie McGrath Injury Prevention Specialist Injury Prevention Services
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