Walking?

[KnOxViLLe]

Is walking good exercise? It's so nice and sunny where I live lately, and I'd like to be able to exercise outside, enjoy the fresh air (and maybe work on my tan a little ;D)

Anyways, since our a/c hasnt been fixed in the house, its really hard to do DDR when it's real hot outside. So I decided I would pick up an mp3 player and start walking.

So far it's good, seems to be a decent workout. It's a nice change to listen to my music (not that I don't like DDR music, it's just that you can only listen to YMCA and a crappy version of Like A Virgin for so many times).

Anyways, I was just wondering if this is an alright subsitute for my DDR (just for occassionally when it's too hot to be sweating in my house)?

Also, is it possible to overdo it? The past 3 days, I've been walking/running for an hour in the afternoon (walk 2 minutes, do a quick sprint for about 15 seconds, then walk another 2 minutes) and then just plain old walking for an hour after dinner.

Can somebody please fill me in, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanx!

[abrannan]

Walking = good
Walking with occasional sprints = Good, maybe even better

Overdo it? Possible, no not anywhere near what you've been doing. People do marathons this way (walk 2 minutes, run 2 minutes). It's the recommended way to cover a lot of ground in a relative short amount of time when doing outdooor activities like orienteering or geocaching. You won't hit overdoing it until you're covering 20 miles or so at a stretch.

Walking is a great exercise, they recommend a half hour a day at a brisk pace (enough to get your heart rate up slightly), and doing so can cut your risk of heart disease in half.

[ImpFreak7]

Walking is one of my favorite ways to exercise, its nice to just get outside in the summer and not worry about pushing myself, just walking at whatever pace I choose. Even better is going to the park and walking through the woods.

Even when I'm trying to run I do intervals, since I don't have the ability to run even a mile yet, I walk for a bit, run for a bit, walk until I've recovered, then run again.

Walking is great, not only is it exercise, but it gets me outside away from my computer and the TV and into a little sunshine. ;D

[grimsb]

Oooh, walking. Last year I walked every day during the summer, and I lost about 15 pounds. I want to start up again now, but the area is having a skunk problem and I'm afraid to go outside. They're all over the place, even in people's front lawns and on the sidewalks. It's terrible. x.x

Oh well.

As far as overdoing it, I'm pretty sure that as long as you stay hydrated, and it isn't *too* hot outside (you should still wear sunscreen and try to stay in the shade if possible), I don't think that you could "overdo" it. If you're worried about that, you may want to find a route that would allow you to stay within 5 or 10 minutes of your house, so just in case you really start to get tired you'll have enough energy to at least get home.

[iamjay]

Walking's awesome!!

[KnOxViLLe]

Ok, I didn't think it was overdoing it. Although one of my friends goes to one of those Female Gyms: Curves, Shapes....Fat Women United? Something like that...

Anyways, the lady told her that if you do 2 hours a day all the time, it will be too hard on your body. Meh, I didn't really believe her anyways. I just wanted to check.

[legend of croft]

i work as a server in a restaurant and we work 9-13 hour shifts on the floor...i lost 30+ lbs serving food.

[urbanjunglekitten]

I had the opposite experience . . . I'm a server and I gained weight from eating the resturant food. My calves, tho, between DDR and walking for 8 hours straight, are like rocks now.

UJKitten