Health & fitness: Not going to the gym costs
by Beth Garner
bgarner@timesheraldnews.com
Is it just me or are your gym visits really, really expensive too?
I mean, I haven’t been to the actual gym in well over five months yet I pay my membership fee on a biweekly basis. So even if I just went one time during those five months, that single gym visit will cost me about $300.
That, in the words of Bridget Jones (Helen Fielding), “is very bad economy!”
I don’t know what it is about the gym. I have such good intentions when I sign up – and yes I have done it more than once – but you know what they say about good intentions.
I just think I exercise better by myself rather than with a group of muscle-bound, better-dressed people. The problem is that I can never seem to remember that when the contract is in front of me.
Exercise! Love it or hate it, we’re going to talk about it. Now, as I’m sure you are all well aware, there are many types of exercises we could and should be doing – kick boxing, yoga, mountain biking, running marathons, whatever. So why don’t I see you all out there sweating away?
I think it has to do with energy level and planning. I don’t know about you but my life is packed full of perhaps unnecessary stuff, but stuff nonetheless that always seems to be eating away at my time. You do have to be a little bit creative, get off the couch and carve out some specific time to exercise.
Be it morning, noon, night, middle of the night – it won’t happen on its own so plan for it. Unfortunately, it takes much less planning and effort to watch T.V., read, or snack so we get lazy and sort fall right back into our bad habits.
A doctor once told me that energy begets energy. That was good advice and I’ve never forgotten it. Simply put, it means that if we start moving and becoming more active, we’ll actually have more energy to move and become more active. Kind of like a reverse vicious cycle. If we can force ourselves to get up for that very first time, it’s supposed to get easier and you’ll start craving that level of activity.
Don’t forget, beyond all the health benefits, exercise increases your metabolism so all your healthy eating or dieting will be supplemented in a very beneficial way – we can eat more!
Walking seems to me to be the simplest, least expensive, yet still effective way to exercise… if you do it right.
I know, one foot in front of the other; how can you do it wrong? I guess you can’t really do it wrong but there are some things you should know.
You need to walk at a pace which is brisk enough to raise your heart rate. Resting heart rate… working heart rate… there is a complicated formula based on age and current weight that gives you a target heart rate (I’ll tell you about that another time).
Your pulse (the number of times your heart beats per minute) increases when you exercise, which is a good thing overall because it will eventually make your heart stronger. This formula helps you gauge how hard you need to work to raise your heart rate to the target level.
Want an easier way to do this? Barring any type of doctor’s restriction, try to walk at a brisk enough pace so that it is difficult to carry on a conversation beyond a one or two-word phrase.
Where I walk, I often see people strolling along talking on their cell phones or walking with friends and engaged in lengthy conversations. Exercising with friends is a good way to stay motivated, but remember you actually have to walk more and talk less. You won’t get the results you’re hoping for if you just stroll.
I’ve also been reading advice from different fitness experts who recommend that you change your pace while you’re walking. The nice people who maintain the track where I walk have marked every 1/10 of a mile. I use these markers and change my pace after every 3/10 of a mile or so. I’ve seen some walking regimens that advise changing your pace after one minute or two minutes, but I find that it complicates my walk if I have to constantly look at my watch.
Also, one last piece of advice – swing your arms. I mean really swing them! It feels a little unnatural at first but if you pump your arms, you’ll increase the intensity of your workout and tone up your arms to boot.
We’re going to continue this walking theme for another week because I want to explore with you the 10,000-step theory but in the meantime … I hope to see you out there walking!