Anyone who has gone to gyms or had a personal trainer knows that the best way to start a workout is to warm up. The warm-up phase usually involves 10-15 minutes of cardio with equipment such as a treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike. If we’re not big fans of gyms, don’t like running or can’t do it, walking is still a great and healthy alternative.
The HIIT workout
What many people ignore is that walking can become a real HIIT workout, which stands for High Intensity Interval Training. This cardiovascular training technique is based on alternating between high and low intensity work, and by stimulating the metabolism it helps to burn calories.
Here’s how to turn 10 minutes of walking into a calorie-burning workout
If we want to transform our daily walking with the principles of HIIT training, let’s start by preparing our muscles with a stretching session. We gently stretch all our muscles, avoiding sudden movements that can cause jerking. We stretch the back and arms, do some neck rotations, stretch the quadriceps and release the wrists and ankles. Many people leave out their ankles, but it is important to warm them too to prevent them from exerting themselves too much. We rotate the foot from right to left for 30 seconds and from left to right for another 30 seconds. We will now be ready for our walk.
Alternate the intensity
As HIIT training wants, we have to alternate the intensity of our training. We start walking at a steady pace for the first 4 minutes, without trying too hard, without accelerating or decreasing the pace and without ever stopping. Let us now move on to the second phase. From minute 4 to minute 6 we increase the pace and allow the heart rate to rise. We also involve the arms and the abdominal wall. We resist this rhythm for two minutes and try not to slow down.
At minute 6 we will be able to return to the rhythm of the first phase for another two minutes. In this way we will recover our breath and energy and we will be ready for the final sprint. At minute 8 we increase the pace to our maximum. We walk like this until the 10th minute of training. Let’s remember to use your arms and to breathe. At the end of the 10 minutes, let’s take a minute to recover, returning to our basic rhythm and gradually stopping.
So here, in summary, how to turn 10 minutes of walking into a calorie-burning workout:
- zero-fourth minute: average pace;
- fourth-sixth minute: high pace;
- sixth-eighth minute: medium rhythm;
- eighth-tenth minute: very high pace;
- tenth-eleventh minute: recovery, average pace that decreases until it stops.
Deepening
The alteration in the perception of flavors could be the symptom of this condition that has nothing to do with the Coronavirus