Walking Plus
The word fitness conjures up people in sports kit or sweating in lycra and leotards, the latter named after a 19th-century French acrobat! However fitness is of fundamental importance to everyone, indeed it is to be argued that fitness becomes even more important every year we live, but what do we mean by the word, fitness?
It is often the case with defining the meaning of a word it is best to describe how it could be measured and that usually means measurement after activity.
A low pulse rate when someone is sitting still, is suggestive of fitness but it is only when someone has to climb four flights of stairs or run a mile or walk briskly for 10 minutes, that fitness can be assessed properly and there are two dimensions to this measurement. One is the maximum level of ability, for example, the maximum speed attained or the time taken to run or walk a mile. The second is their response to the challenge or activity – how quickly and completely they recover. The less fit someone is the less good is their performance and the longer do they take to recover after their activity is over.
So fitness determines your maximum level of ability and your resilience and of course these are two of the same criteria that define the affects of biological ageing, which is one of the reasons why the medical profession confused these two aspects of living longer for so long.
Walking is the simplest, cheapest and simplest way of maintain and increasing fitness, particularly brisk walking. However brisk walking benefits two aspects of fitness, cardiovascular fitness or stamina, the ability to keep moving and breathing easily, and the strength of leg muscles so it is essential to complement and supplement the benefits of walking to tackle the other three aspects of fitness all beginning with the letter ‘s’ – strength, stamina and skill.
In addition to deciding to walk briskly thirty minutes a day it is also a good aim to spend at least ten minutes a day doing exercises that will increase strength, suppleness and skill.
Increase strength - Good advice is given on the NHS website about strength and skill but for strength you need to think about the upper body, the core strength and your upper limbs.
Increase suppleness - For suppleness, the opposite of stiffness you need to think about stretching all the joints of the body – upper and lower including the spine and neck every day. Often enrolment with tai chi, yoga or Pilates is a good way to learn the range of skills that you need on a daily basis.
Increase skill - Skill is another word for your muscular coordination and it is of vital importance, for example in recovery, if you happen to trip or stumble and there are numerous ways in which you can increase skill. Yoga, tai chi and Pilates will also help with that but so too will dancing and one useful tip is that when you brush your gums at night, and brushing gums is more important than brushing teeth, you stand on one leg for two minutes whilst doing so.
