Seven Top Tips to Get You Walking

According to the Australian Health Department, 75 minutes of walking per week will improve health & fitness levels significantly.

Walking is low impact and benefits include improved cardiovascular fitness, stronger bones and reduced body fat, plus it’s suitable for almost everyone.

Seven Top Walking Tips…

1. Look for walking opportunities; park your car a little further away from your destination
2. Get off public transport or the elevator one stop earlier and walk!
3. Walk for 30 minutes per day or set a distance each day and stick to it
4. Become a tourist in your own town and take the nature or scenic walks on occasion
5. Regular leisurely walks around your neighbourhood may lead to new friends!
6. Make walking a pleasure by having the correct footwear and clothing to suit conditions
7. Before walking, remind yourself how much better you will feel afterwards!

Building physical activity into your life

Physical activity built into a daily lifestyle plan is also one of the most effective ways to keep healthy and assist with weight loss and keep the weight off.

Start with regular small bouts of 10 minutes three times per day and gradually build up to longer sessions. If your goal is to lose weight, you will need to do physical activity for longer than 30 minutes each day and you can achieve this by starting with smaller bouts of activity throughout the day and increasing these to sessions of more than 30 minutes as your fitness improves.

Drink plenty of pure water and/or a freshly made living juice before and after your walk. If you are taking a long walk, take a water bottle with you.

Wear a pedometer

A pedometer measures the number of steps you take. You can use it to measure your movement throughout the day and compare it to other days or to recommended amounts. This is a great motivator! The recommended number of steps accumulated per day to achieve health benefits is 10,000 steps or more.

Footwear is important

Walking is a low cost and effective form of exercise. However, the wrong type of shoe or walking action can cause foot or shin pain, blisters and injuries to soft tissue. Make sure your shoes are comfortable, with appropriate heel and arch supports. Take light, easy steps and make sure your heel touches down before your toes. Whenever possible, walk on grass rather than concrete to help absorb the impact.

* Moderate activities such as walking pose little health risk but, if you have a medical condition, check with your doctor before starting any new exercise program of physical activity.

Vitality4Life has an extensive range of home gym equipment to help you on your way to fitness, including vibration machines, yoga props, spin bikes, vibrational training bars and much more.

Vitality 4 Life and the development of Vibration machines

I have maintained a keen interest in the development of this technology. In 2002 I purchased one of the first Power Plate machines from Holland and have used it constantly. In 2002 Vitality 4 Life commissioned Mr Kim, a Korean engineer formerly employed by Daewoo to do a feasibility study on the manufacturing of vibration exercise platforms.

Our desire was to make this ground breaking technology affordable to most people. Our requirements were that the machines must be of the finest quality and affordable to households. After 20 years in the vitality business we know that the key ingredient is that the individual must get into a daily practice.

WBV therapy has been embraced by gyms, personal training centres, beauty salons, chiropractors, day spa's and weight loss centres.

Studies have shown that exercise on these vibration platforms can help to lose weight, reduce back pain, increase balance and stability, recover from injury, tone up, increase flexibility and gain strength.

What is whole body vibration therapy?

Whole Body Vibration (WBV) may appear to be a new therapy but it was actually developed by Russian scientists to help overcome degeneration of muscle mass of cosmonauts who had spent long periods of time in zero gravity.

I was first introduced to vibration exercise therapy 25 years ago by Dr Ian Reinbott. Dr Reinbott, a leading Australian chiropractor, imported a set of early machines from Russia and used them with great success in his clinics in Australia.

These early vibration machines cost over $80 000 and could only be afforded by clinics. What I have witnessed both in my personal life and those around me is that once someone has reached the age of 35 they make an error (in my opinion) of returning to conventional weight lifting equipment / gym equipment in an attempt to retain their vitality.

But by the age of 35, most people have experienced some type of injury or dysfunction. We have all seen the middle aged jogger trundling down the street in the early morning in an attempt to get fit. Next time observe them closely. Often their gait is labored which is caused by the stress of having a body which is out of alignment.

By returning to the gym, they proceed to strengthen this dysfunction. On the other hand, with whole body vibration therapy they proceed to return the body to skeletal alignment.