Connect with us

Fitness

Exercise advice: 8 methods to turn brisk walking into a total-body workout – PUNE PULSE

Published

on

Exercise advice: 8 methods to turn brisk walking into a total-body workout – PUNE PULSE
Walking is more than just getting around. These eight methods will help you turn walking into a total-body exercise. With these suggestions, your daily stroll can turn into an all-encompassing exercise that strengthens your cardiovascular system, works a variety of muscle areas, and keeps you motivated.

By Khushi Maheshwari 

Walking is an excellent kind of exercise if you could only do one thing for the rest of your life. It’s among the easiest and most convenient types of physical activity. It’s also reasonably priced and free.

Though it has many advantages, most people only consider walking as a means of transportation from point A to point B. Walking is fantastic for your heart and circulation, helps you lose weight, improves your brain and creative faculties, balances your mood, speeds up your metabolism, encourages deeper sleep, and much more. You may make your regular stroll into a full-body workout by adding a few innovative strategies.

Just picture transforming your stroll into a workout that targets your arms, shoulders, core, and even your head! It’s not as hard as you would think, and you don’t need expensive equipment or a gym membership.

Advertisement

All set to exude enthusiasm on your walk? Here are some tips from Rohit Sakunia, the founder of ArtE Media Tech, a pan-India full-stack agency, on how to make your stroll productive from head to toe.

Certainly! Here’s an expanded and fully paraphrased version with additional detail:

1. Energize Your Walking Stride: Speed walking isn’t just for leisurely strolls anymore. Boost your pace to elevate your heart rate and maximize calorie expenditure. Focus on maintaining proper posture—shoulders back, core engaged—and swing your arms vigorously. Picture it as a purposeful, strong march. If you track your steps with a pedometer, challenge yourself with intervals of faster walking. Achieving and surpassing these challenges provides a rewarding dopamine rush, boosting motivation and satisfaction with your workout.

2. Integrate Interval Training: Keep your walking routine dynamic by incorporating intervals of higher intensity. Alternate between brisk walking and short bursts of faster walking or light jogging. This approach keeps your body adaptable and enhances cardiovascular fitness over time.

3. Incorporate Arm Exercises: Why limit your workout to your legs? Enhance your routine by carrying light hand weights or using water bottles for exercises such as bicep curls, shoulder presses, or triceps extensions as you walk. This transforms your walk into a comprehensive full-body workout, enhancing muscular endurance and toning your arms effectively.

Advertisement

4. Make Use of Terrain: Seek out inclines or stairs during your walk to add variety and challenge. Walking uphill engages your glutes, hamstrings, and calves more intensely while also improving cardiovascular endurance. For an added challenge and to target your lower body further, try incorporating lunges uphill.

5. Engage Your Core: Focus on maintaining a strong core by practicing good posture throughout your walk. Activate your abdominal muscles by pulling your belly button in towards your spine. Additionally, include standing side crunches or twists to target your obliques, improving core stability and strength.

6. Incorporate Walking Lunges: Break up the monotony of a straight walk by integrating walking lunges into your route. Pause every few minutes to perform a set of lunges, which not only strengthen your legs and glutes but also enhance your balance and flexibility over time.

7. Utilize Resistance Bands: Add variety and resistance to your workout by bringing along resistance bands. Perform exercises like rows, chest presses, side steps, and squats to target different muscle groups. These portable pieces of equipment increase the intensity of your movements, promoting muscle strength and toning during your walk.

8. Add Dynamic Moves: Infuse enjoyment and variety into your routine with playful and dynamic movements such as skipping, side shuffles, or high knees. These not only elevate your heart rate but also make your workout more enjoyable and less predictable.

Advertisement

By integrating these strategies into your walking regimen, you’ll not only enhance your physical fitness but also keep your workouts engaging and effective. Each element targets different facets of fitness—from cardiovascular health and calorie burn to muscle strength and flexibility—ensuring a comprehensive and rewarding exercise session every time you step out for a walk.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Fitness

Boost cardio fitness with this beginner-friendly alternative to the trending 4×4 Norwegian interval workout

Published

on

Boost cardio fitness with this beginner-friendly alternative to the trending 4×4 Norwegian interval workout

The Norwegian 4×4 workout has been touted as the ultimate longevity-boosting workout, credited for significantly improving aerobic fitness scores over just eight weeks.

Popular among runners and developed by researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), it involves performing four sets of four-minute cardio intervals at 85-95% of your maximum heart rate, followed by three minutes of light recovery.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Fitness

‘You only need 2 sessions a week to get stronger’ – expert PT reveals the benefits of the 2-2-2 workout for busy women

Published

on

‘You only need 2 sessions a week to get stronger’ – expert PT reveals the benefits of the 2-2-2 workout for busy women

The 2-2-2 workout is more than an internet trend. It’s a full-body, time-saving, and strength training workout that can be done in the gym or with dumbbells at home, any time. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s backed by science and an expert PT.

Alain Gonzalez popularised the workout most recently, but the longevity perks for women are clear. Strength training offers women benefits, like reducing the risk of osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and cardiovascular disease. It also improves mobility and balance. However, we’re often the most time-stretched people in the gym, so anything we can do to shorten the time we need to spend there is appreciated, especially during the busy festive season.

Continue Reading

Fitness

13 Strength-Training Moves That Taylor Swift Used to Prep for the ‘Eras Tour’

Published

on

13 Strength-Training Moves That Taylor Swift Used to Prep for the ‘Eras Tour’

In “The End of an Era,” Taylor Swift gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at the workout routine that helped her prepare for her “Eras Tour.”

Episode 3 of the six-part Disney+ docuseries follows Swift as she hits the gym throughout the tour, which ran for nearly two years.

Since each show lasted over three hours, Swift enlisted the help of personal trainer Kirk Myers to help her focus on endurance so she could maintain her energy throughout each concert.

“There are a lot of things that we pulled off on this tour that I’ve never even attempted on past tours. I think the longest show I ever did before was 2 hours and 15 minutes,” she said during the episode. “I never would have believed you if you would have told me we would be doing a 3.5 hour show. Now, saying that is one thing. Doing that physically is another.”

In order to dance and sing for that long, the 36-year-old had to make certain lifestyle changes.

Advertisement

“I really had to up my game in terms of physical training,” she said.

While reflecting on her workout routine, Swift joked that it wasn’t for the faint of heart. “I’ve never worked out this much in my life. It’s horrible,” she added.

Here are just a few of the exercises Swift focused on as part of her “Eras Tour” workout routine.

She Prioritized Strength Training

Episode 3 of the docuseries shows Swift in the gym prioritizing strength training. She can be seen doing the following moves:

  • Battle waves and wave slams
  • Ski machine
  • Resistance band-assisted pull-ups
  • Medicine ball sit-up throws
  • Overhead hammer slam
  • Assisted reverse crunch
  • Hanging knee raise
  • Medicine ball slams
  • Medicine ball Russian twists
  • Reformer plank pikes
  • Crossover crunch with ankle weights
  • Medicine ball side throws
  • Bosu ball squat and press

She Did Lots of Pull-Ups But Hated Them

Swift can be seen doing pull-ups assisted by a resistance band and revealed that she has a “strong dislike” for them.

“In no way do I ever apply this at any point in the show. I just want to flag that as I do every time I have to do pull-ups,” she quipped.

Advertisement

Swift’s personal trainer encouraged her and said she’s gotten “stronger” throughout the years while performing the exercise.

“It’s from all the pent up rage and resentment I have for them,” she joked.

She Started Training 6 Months Before the Tour Began

While reflecting on her workout routine, Swift said she started planning for the tour early on.

“Six months ahead of my first rehearsal, (I was) running on the treadmill every single day at the tempo of the songs that I was playing while singing them out loud,” she said. “You just don’t want them to see you panting.”

Swift previously spoke about her intense treadmill workout in an interview with Time.

Advertisement

“Every day I would run on the treadmill, singing the entire set list out loud,” she told Time. “Fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs.”

She Did a LOT of Cardio

Dancing and singing for over three hours is a killer workout, especially when you’re running around the stage all night long. In the docuseries, Swift noted that two of her songs are particularly difficult to perform.

“‘1989’ and ‘Reputation’ are very high cardio. Anything’s hard when you’re scaling a stage that goes the entire length of an NFL stadium,” she said. “I think I run like 8 miles in the show.”

Continue Reading

Trending