Goals Of Walking In A Fitness Routine - Part 1

Walking fitness is a great way of maintaining your health. The goal is to build muscles at the same time protecting the joints. Some people walk for their fitness programs with the goal to lose weight while others walk to improve their overall health.

In other words, the goals for a walking fitness program can be varied and as individual as you are. You are the one that must set the goals you have for your walking program and they are developed after asking yourself several questions.

First, what is your primary goal? Do you want to lose weight, improve your cardiovascular system or are you looking for an improvement in your general conditioning? Alternatively, are you interested in all 3 goals?

What is your current level of fitness? Before beginning a walking program you must begin from the beginning. That sounds rather basic – but too often people are interested in jumping right in to a rigorous program that will lead to injury and problems. You’ll stop your exercise program because you are tired, injured or just sore.

How much time do you have to devote to a walking fitness program? Can you do it in 15 minute spurts during the day or do you have 60 minutes you can walk all at once?

After answering all of those questions you’ll have a better chance of setting up goals for a walking program that are realistic and which you can achieve. You should always start a program slowly. For instance, if you’ve been a couch potato for several years – set a goal of walking out the door 5 days a week and seeing where the walk takes you.

You can set a goal of walking for 5 minutes or 15 minutes, but the goal is to take that action and get it done. Once your first 15 minute walks become easy for you try adding 5 minutes each week until you can walk for 30 minutes to an hour a day.

Resources:

TheWalkingSite: Beginnning a Fitness Walking Program

http://www.thewalkingsite.com/beginner.html

ShareCare: What are Realistic Golas I can Set When Walking for Fitness

http://www.sharecare.com/health/walking/what-goals-set-walking-fitness

Prevention: 14 Walking Workouts to Burn Fat and Boost Eenrgy

http://www.prevention.com/fitness/fitness-tips/14-walking-workouts-burn-fat-and-boost-energy

PBS: The 20% Boost Program: Fit Walking into Your Life

http://www.pbs.org/americaswalking/health/health20percentboost.html