Today I’d like to introduce you to a great guest blogger who is going to explain how you can tun a simple walk into a fantastic workout!

Zyana Morris is a passionate health and lifestyle blogger who loves to write about prevailing trends. Currently she is working at Hourglass Express, an online store for fitness accessories. She is a featured author at various authoritative blogs in the health and fitness industry. You can follow her through Twitter and Facebook

I love walking, jogging and running early morning in the summers, It’s just the kick I need to jumpstart my day. I enjoy the early morning breeze, breathing in fresh air and hearing the birds chirp. I assure you there’s nothing better than the sight of sun rise with the colors of nature spread across the canvas of sky. I get my early morning cardio done, after which I gobble down a healthy breakfast which keeps me full and helps me tackle each day with enthusiasm and energy.

It may sound very boring to many of you and most of you would rather prefer spending those 45 minutes in bed — but that just makes you lazy, by the time you get to work or school you’re yawning and still half asleep. Meanwhile, if you even try to fight off sleep and get active, it already is 12! That’s right; we waste half our day, sleeping in our cars, on our school desks, and behind our computers at work. The whole concept of being a couch potato rather than dedicating some time for a health ensuring physical activity is very depressing but that’s not what I’m here to share with you all today.

Well, if people don’t really workout they can, at least, incorporate some healthy walks into their busy schedules and that, in turn, can serve the purpose of a workout. I turned my walk into my very own workout session, so here are some tips to help you achieve at least one of your fitness resolutions for living healthy and staying active.

4 WAYS TO TURN YOUR WALK INTO A WORKOUT

INTERVALS
Always be sure to add intervals in your walk. You can’t keep running for an hour or more, can you?
• Start off slow, walk for 10-15 minutes as a warm up.
• Follow up by a 10 minute run.
• Take at least a minute’s break in between to catch your breath.
• However, gradually increase your running time and decrease your interval time.
• Increasing your capacity will only benefit you as you will burn more calories. Since your metabolism becomes fast it will rapidly burn more calories.

WALK UP A HILL OR A SLOPE
Walking up a hill will surely help you burn more calories as compared to walking on a flat surface, as your body will be exerting more energy to climb that hill or slope making it more active.
• Wear the right footwear, such as joggers because sandals and flip flops won’t cut it. Also, wear proper workout leggings that won’t slow you down and are easier to walk in.
• Time yourself! Aim to reduce the time taken to get on top, every day.
• Do not overexert yourself from day 1 as your muscles will hurt and you might suffer from muscle injuries.

CARRY WEIGHTS
There’s a common myth that cardio helps you burn fat. That is absolute rubbish because cardio only burns unwanted extra calories. Weight training helps you burn fat and tones your body. So here’s what you can do:
• Carry light weights with you while walking
• Try to do sets of 10 reps, every 1 kilometer
• There’s no fixed rule on how to use the weights, it’s totally up to you how you use them for your own good, be as creative as you want. You can do 2 sets of 10 reps within a distance of 1 kilometer if you want.
• But again, do not over exhort yourself, initially. Build up your momentum over a certain number of days so that you don’t hurt yourself.

MAKE IT FUN
Who wants to exercise alone? I mean we need some motivation, right? There’s always someone we need, to motivate and appreciate our efforts and to push further. So here’s what you can do to make the whole process a lot more interesting:
• Tag a friend along
• Get your headphones and iPod. Music tends to motivate you and time passes by like a rocket as well. You’re likely to cover twice the distance while listening to songs because you aren’t keeping track of the distance.
• Join a running group where you can meet new people, interact with them and forget that you’re doing this to lose weight. Think of it as a way to socialize and get a break from your office and bosses.
These are some of the things I do personally to make my walk as useful as possible. I can’t afford to take out time and go to the gym or practice yoga and Pilates, at home as I tend to juggle between 10,000 other things in my life. But I keep mixing up my schedule so that it doesn’t get boring, some days I ask a friend to tag along, some days I listen to my music while incorporating weights into my walk. Once you get your momentum flowing, you’ll start noticing the results. That’s all the motivation you’ll need to never skip a day. I can’t recall the last time I decided to sleep in and miss my morning exercise. It keeps me in great shape, I don’t particularly have to worry about my diet and I always give 110% at work.

Do you ever turn a walk into a workout?

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