RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

Just got a dog, so spare time to exercise is at a premium as he needs 2 good walks a day. But then got thinking that walking is supposed to be one of the best forms of exercise around & I would think I walk about 2 miles a day now.

Is it any good? They say its as good as running but safer (lower impact etc)
Any thoughts, my thinking is just go to the gym for the weights & use walking the dog as my aerobic exercise.

R.

lightning101

To burn fat you really need to get your heart pumping at a certain rate.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Running on the roads and other really hard surfaces can cause shin splints, And I can tell you now, they hurt a lot.

Walking the dog is a brilliant way of keeping yourself fit, shame they dont give dogs away on the NHS, for these bed ridden fatties.

hectic

?????

Crazy Chick

SiPie

I walk 4 miles a day round trip to and from work Monday to Friday regardless of weather and feel zero benefit compared to when I play an hour game of squash or go mountain biking......it's no doubt better than sitting on your **** all day but personally I think the benefit is minimal

hoskib

iTrader: (1)

agreed that you'll need to do more if you want to see any major improvement, but any exercise is better than none!

alternatively buy a greyhound and try to chase the ******!

Scooby.Newbie

It all depends on where you are starting from, you may well not feel the benefit directly if you both mountain bike and play squash, but for someone easing back into excercise is it a great way to start, walking is good for you and the dog will love you for it.

stilover

Walk, don't run. As above running on hard surfaces causes Shin Splints, which I get all the time. Again as above, they hurt, alot.
Walk the dog, but up your pace. Don't speed walk as that just looks wrong, but walk faster than normal, just to make your body work. Also throw plenty of sticks for the dog. All this burns callories.

What I do is make my dog sit till I'm quite a distance from him, throw the stick away from him as hard as I can, then proceed to run away, only stopping once he's got the stick then caught me up. Great exercise.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Pressed something before I had finished my post, ive re-done it now anyway, I wondered if anyone saw it, guess I was to slow with the edit.

Bloody Computers

RichWalk

after swiming, walking is the best moderate excerise you can do, as it w*rks more muscles at tolerable rates.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

I'm 23 and have been into running for 10 years. I run at approx 7.5mph/12kph. I run between 2.5 and 5 miles which is between 25 and 40 minutes, 4-5 times a week. In all that time, I only ever had shin splints once, when I ran 3 miles for the first time in school plimsols!
Buy a pair of high quality running shoes (£80+) and you won't have any problems!
As for walking being good exercise, the correct answer is.... it depends!
It depends on whether you walk or exercise regulally, how much exercise you do, what sort or exercise you do ( anaerobic or aerobic ) etc etc.
Your body will become accustomed to any form of physical exertion relativley quickly. So if you walk 2 miles to work everyday, very quickly the body will aclimatise to that activity. Its better than nothing but you won't lose weight or tone up.

If you don't do any exercise, (and I mean actually getting sweaty!) then buy yourself a pulse monitor watch. Then try and exert yourself either by jogging or fast walking and aim to keep your heart rate at 120bpm -150bpm for 20 -30 minutes, if you want to see and feel results. Thats the fat burning range.

A healthy adult should have a resting heart rate of 65-70 bpm. Light walking should be around 100bpm. A light jog will up that rate to around 120 bpm.

Also, make sure you vary the intensity at which you exercise. For example, if i'm on a treadmill, a may warm up at 9kph for 5mins, then run at 12kph for 10mins, then alternate between 14kph and 10kph every minute for 10minutes.

Trick is to always keep the body guessing!

Remember though, always start any exercise programme slowly, always warm up and stretch everytime before and after, drink lots and lots and lots of water (atleast 8-10pints a day) and that you don't have to sprint like an olympic athlete to see a benifit!

G-STAR

I was just about to mention the above.

I ran 5/6 miles at least five times a week during summer (well, break from university - so from June to September), and didn't encounter any problems.

2000TLondon

Jockeys walk miles and miles (literally ten or more)a day to keep their weight down.

Not exactly sure about details, but told heart rate at a steady higher rate for longer is better than very high heart rate for shorter like jogging.

On the gym machines fat burning programmes are always lower heart rate than cardio programmes, I think!

Drunken Bungle Whore

From my running days I'd say that you can pay well over £100 for traners and still get shin splints if you buy the wrong ones - it's not the cost of the shoe it's whether or not it suits your foot and running style. I was lucky, I really suited a model of Asic which cost around £50 a pair.

I eventually had to stop running due to a (previously undiagnosed) congenital back condition. I try and walk as much as I can now - as long as you get your pulse rate up for about 30 mins at a time then that's fine. Of course you won't win any marathons - but if all you want to do is achieve a basic healthly level of fitness then you'll be fine.

What sort of dog is it?

HankScorpio

There's always a queue of people on here telling you that the only way to lose weight is strictly in the calories in being less than the calories out.

It takes the roughly the same number of calories to walk for two miles as it does to run it. Takes longer obviously but pretty much the same energy is expended.

[corrected] Yes, but according to this bloke:

When you run a mile, you're burning mostly sugar, or carbohydrates, which is how your body gives you fast energy in bursts. When you walk a mile, it gives your metabolism time to switch from burning carbohydrates to burning fat.

http://www.webmd.com/content/pages/1/3079_883

JamieMacdonald

Have you ever seen a fat runner?

Have you ever seen a fat walker/rambler?

The chubbies need to stop eating, get off they asses and work up a sweat, walking ain't going to help them. Of course if they're happy being bloaters then that's fine with me!

I rest my case.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

I'm sorry hank, but it IS a case of calories consumed/burnt off. Also, you have to exercise with your heart rate between 120-150bpm for 20-30minutes before you actually start using your fat stores. Before that point, you are only burning carbs.

ScoobyDont

It only uses your right arm for about 5 minutes... Oh you said walking... sorry mate.

Tiggs

far more complex than that though, training zones were invented to make people think they could do sod all and loose weight.

if i work out at 45mins at 150bpm every other day i WILL loose more weight than if i did it at 110bpm.

the only reason i would go at 110 is if i couldnt manage 150!

carbs/fat/whatever - its all fueld by callories.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Yes but if you start complicating exercise, people just turn away (I used to be a gym instructor whilst at uni). Its far more effective to give people training zones as a guide and then adjust them to the individual.

HankScorpio

I didn't say different to the calories thing
A pound of fat equals about 3500 calories. To lose 1 pound a week you will need to expend 3500 more calories than you eat that week, whether through increased activity or decreased eating or both.

I will disagree with the heart rate statment tho, putting a number on it is dangerous, it's best at 50-70% of your maximum heart rate (number varies depending on who you ask) which is determined by a couple of factors.
Basic calculation for max is 220 - (Age) but you can add in resting heart rate to the mix as well. Google "target heart rate calculator" and you'll get quite a few.

Getting your heart rate up on it's own doesn't lose weight, it can go up for a number of reasons (adrenalin for one, who's had a near miss or lost the back end and found their heart going mental?), it's just a guideline for the work done by the body.

Doing a workout that sustains you at 110bpm, your body is doing a certain amount of work, work is energy, energy can be measured in calories.
Doing the same duration at 150bpm you are obviously doing more work (energy, calories) so you will lose more, I agree.

(Also, depending on the workout done, there may also be some muscle build up but that just complicates matters further!!)


So on the original question, agreeing with the calories in, calories out statement, walking (at a decent pace, hitting target HR) is a good exercise as long as you're not picking up pie and chips on the way home!

Brendan Hughes

"drink lots and lots and lots of water (atleast 8-10pints a day)"

Bloody hell, that would get me walking miles all right, to the loo and back.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Think of it as your bodys fuel+lubricant. If you don't drink enough, i.e atleast 4 pints a day, you are not doing your kidneys any good at all. Plus, concentration levels slip, tiredness sets in, you are easily irritated..... the list is endless!

davyboy

Thats a stupid amount of water, I though it was 2 litres?

Little Miss WRX

Having suffered from lower limb injuries varying from shin splints, ligament tears, knee injuries etcetc, I strongly recommend you do the following:

See a decent outlet to buy a pair of runners where they can assess your gait.

Finally after years of problems, I saw a podiatrist and he quickly evaluated that my left leg is a tiny bit shorter than my left and I have flat feet - but not the same on both feet. So the correction on my left foot is different to my right.
I now have orthotics fitted into some very decent (and expensive ) running shoes. However, I now no longer face weekly physio, save money and am able to run for much longer.

A simple calculation to work out what "range" your heart rate should be in to start burning fat is 220 minus your age multiplied by 70%. It is a guideline not a definitive rule.

When I train I try to maintain a rate of 130-140 and when my asthma permits I am able to train for sufficient periods of time and have a good level of fitness.

Brendan Hughes

Sory, but that sounds like horse****. I've never drunk 4 pints of water a day, I'm 37 years old and have a black belt, ran cross country at county level, etc. I do f-all exercise at the moment but am probably still fitter than most people 10 years younger. According to your calculations I should have had a kidney replaced 10 years ago.

People die from over-hydration, look at Leah Betts (it wasn't the E that killed her). I think the figure is maybe a pint of liquid a day minimum, with a recommendation of 2-4 pints of water. Of course, if you're doing Olympic training in Borneo you'll need more. But an average of 10 pints a day - no way.

suprabeast

who said 10 pints a day tho??

how can you drink a pint of liquid with 2-4 pints of water? aint that the same thing?

_RIP_

He said a pint of liquid (water) minimum with 3 - 4 pints of water (liquid) as being recommended.

Brendan Hughes

Bottom of post #12. And I think you should drink liquid but water is by far the best for your body.