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Calorie Burn? Know The Optimum Walking Speed For Greatest Results
By: Laxmi Krishna
Calorie burn can be really enhanced if you follow a very simple but effective way to judge if your walking speed is optimum, yet safe. Your best walking speed can be recognized by certain sure “symptoms of exertion” during your walk –- namely, from your breathing pattern and your ability to talk through the exercise. If we have, say, a five point scale of least exertion to most exertion, we could measure how briskly we are walking based on how short of breath we are, and how difficult it is to talk. Your five point scale could be as follows: Level 1: The kind of exertion you feel if after lying on a couch watching TV, you have to walk, say, to get up and open your front door. Breathing is relaxed and slow. Level 2: The kind of exertion level when you are pacing about the room deep in thought. Breathing is energetic but still not rapid. Level 3: The kind of exertion involved in a leisurely walk to the corner store. Breathing is more deep. Takes a bit of time to slow down after the exertion. Level 4: The kind of exertion involved if you were running very late for an appointment ... or doing some exercise like walking. Breathing would get more rapid. And talking though the exertion would be possible, yet slightly difficult. Level 5: This is a no-no level. This is where you may overdo it ... exercising too hard, too fast -- and having deep fatigue and extreme discomfort in breathing or speaking. The golden rule of heart rate, for your fastest calorie burn conditions, should be to try and exercise at about 70 to 80 percent of your maximum ability, so you should try to be at Level 4 on your exertion scale. At Level 4, your walking speed will be just right for the greatest calorie burn without underdoing or overdoing. As you advance in your walking program, and your metabolism gets "re-trained" for higher calorie burn, your actual walking speed may change. If you were doing 4 kph. earlier, say, you may find you're able to do 6 kph. now. Does this mean that you experienced less calorie burn at 4 kph. than at the new walking speed of 6 kph.? Absolutely not. The walking speed improves naturally as you continue with the program, because body weight drops, so even if you are walking faster in terms of walking speed, it need not mean you are exerting at the Level 4! Your walking speed at Exertion Level 4 is recognized through your breathing feeling more rapid, and talking though the exertion being possible, yet slightly difficult. Carrying a heavier body weight earlier you may have reached Exertion Level 4 when walking at just 4 kph. Now, when you are lighter, you may be walking at 6 kph. before you feel the same exertion symptoms! Don't get swayed by merely the walking speed. Remember, it the level of exertion overall that's important, not merely the walking speed, for greater calorie burn! Laxmi Krishna is a bestselling author on weight loss. She succeeded in losing weight superfast -- 30 kgs. in just 32 weeks, with no dieting -- through a unique walking program she has designed. She reveals her success secrets in her path-breaking guide.Visit Laxmi's site at http://www.walking-calories.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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How to Benefit from the Mind-Body Connection
(excerpt)
You are about to gain insight into the
mind-body connection. The number of
people who truly understand these principles on our
planet are relatively few.
There is an undeniable connection between our minds and
bodies, you can learn
to use this fact to your benefit.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of "Love, Medicine and
Miracles" was once a
distraught cancer surgeon until he
began to understand the greater principles
of the mind-
body connection. He felt dragged down by the artificial
barriers
that existed between patient and doctor, and the
helplessness he often felt as
a result of his inability
to effectively serve those patients. Eventually, those
barriers
were disintegrated by Dr. Siegel's recognition
and growing understanding of the
mind-body connection and
how it could serve his patients and himself.
Dr. Siegel, or Bernie as he began to have his patients
refer to him, had some
startling realizations as a cancer surgeon. He found that
there were actually
quite a few people in the world that successfully beat
the statistics on cancer
survival. He began to recognize that a patient's ability
to defeat something as
serious as cancer had to do with the patient's mind and
attitude about their
disease.
If you would like to see the rest of
this article, please go here:
http://www.tobeinformed.com/repository/mind-body.html
copyright 2004 - David Snape
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