I Heart Walking: The Results

Not bad, eh? It's a great fat burning heart rate, something hard for me to achieve when running, because even my slow runs tend to make my heart beat in a faster range. Even runners in training need to have low heart-rate workouts; the idea being you teach your heart to beat slower as you get faster and then you can run faster because you have more "room" before you hit your max heart rate. And 500 calories? From a walk? Maybe I don't have to lay off the Ben and Jerry's.

That walk didn't overachieve on its own. Here's how it went down:

I live in a hilly neighborhood. Walking on the flats, at a good clip, arms swinging, my heart rate held steady at about 115, but up a hill my HR climbed to 145. If you can, seek out the hills. And on a treadmill, play with the incline.

I mixed in strength work. I'm still fond of mixing in strength work while I walk. On this walk I interspersed two sets each of 25 squat thrusts, 50 walking lunges, 20 push ups and 20 tricep dips. I started a set when my HR went below 115, or so. On my second set of walking lunges my HR was at its max--162. And then my HR stayed elevated for awhile. Once it came back down, I would throw in another round of something, only slightly conscious of how silly I might look to the neighbors driving by.

And so, walking has my full respect. I still might not always remember to bring my heart rate monitor along, but I still believe it's a legitimate workout. And to top it off, I'm sore. I like being sore. Makes me feel like I earned that Ben and Jerry's.