January 13, 2017
Interview with Sarah Lorge Butler, author of the book Walk Your Butt Off
Mike Carruthers: Walking; as a fitness exercise it doesn’t quite get the respect as running does, but…
Sarah Lorge Butler: If you can walk a little faster than your typical shuffling around the house walk you burn a lot more calories and it becomes a real workout.
Sarah Lorge Butler, author of the book Walk Your Butt Off, says if you’re going to walk for real exercise there is some technique to it.
The number 1 thing is the arms, if you bend your arms as if you’re running with a nice 90 degree angle at the elbow and really kind of pull them back and forward then you’ll walk a lot faster. The second thing is to the way your foot lands. You want land with your heel first and then sort of roll through your foot and push off your toe. You don’t want to be kind of clomping along with these kind boom, boom, boom steps. You just want to be light on your feet, roll heel to toe. And then finally when you’re walking quickly it’s better to take a lot of really short steps rather than like few really big strides. So small quick steps is what you want to aim for.
And just what are the benefits of walking?
The benefits are it’s great for your cardiovascular system, your heart, your lungs. Great for your legs and your upper body as well – builds muscle. And it will help torch those calories so if you’re looking to lose weight and you believe in the calories in, calories out weight loss craze then you can burn calories very quickly with walking.
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