If Not Now, When?

Fitness-After-50 - Thomas D. Manfredi, Publisher
tom@fitness-after-50.com
www.fitness-after-50.com
Dec 3, 2007; Vol. 3, Issue 12
Published the first Monday of every month

THIS ISSUE: Burn 50% More Calories While You Walk

Table of Contents:

1) Editor's Note
2) Food for Thought
3) Feature Article: Burn 50% More Calories While You Walk
4) Teleclasses
4) Question & Answer
5) Our Services

Editor's Note

Hi,

As I predicted last month, the holidays have started. We didn't have a chance to go back to Chicago for Thanksgiving weekend. We spent it with our adopted family here in the Phoenix area. It just so happens that the two people who help me run my martial arts club are married to each other, and I am godfather to their oldest child. We have been friends with these people for about 30 years. How's that for a built in adopted family? We went to their house for Thanksgiving day dinner and spent part of the weekend with them at flea markets and looking at the new housing development their son and future daughter-in-law just purchased a home in.

I'm still doing some physical therapy for the knee I had surgery on this past January. I'm starting to make some progress, but I just found out that now I need surgery an my left foot for a recurring problem. That should limit my mobility for a while. It will be a challenge to teach martial arts on crutches. And, I guess I'll be back on the exercise bike for my aerobic training for at least a few weeks. Oh well, as they say, "When you find yourself with lemons, you might as well make lemonade".

As I mentioned last month, I'm setting up a page on my web site where I will be offering my services as an on line fitness coach. I will make the official announcement in this newsletter first, with a link to the coaching site so that my regular readers will get the first chance to sign up. I'm planning to go "live" with the link through my regular web site about a week after my announcement here in the newsletter. Keep in mind that I will only be accepting a limited number of people to coach so I can give each of them the attention they deserve.

My pricing will be extremely reasonable. If you know anything about what personal trainers charge, you will be very pleased with my fees. I will be charging by the month with a fee that is less than many personal trainers charge for an hour. So, if you ever thought about utilizing the services of a personal trainer, you will want to look at what I will be offering as an on line coach. There is a little more information about the benefits of on line coaching in the section below titled "About Our Services".

Good luck, keep exercising, and remember – "If not now, when?".

Best Wishes,

Tom Manfredi


Send any comments you may have to tom@fitness-after-50.com

My site fitness-after-50.com

Food for Thought

Feature Article - Burn 50% More Calories While You Walk

Walking is a form of exercise that is recommended by many fitness professionals as an ideal way to build a more heart healthy body. With walking, you are working the large muscles in the lower part of your body and conditioning the heart to process oxygen more efficiently. This is often referred to as aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise and strength training combine to form the basis for any good health and fitness regime.

Recently, I found a modification to exercise walking that helps make it an even more ideal form of exercise. It is referred to as "Pole Walking", or "Nordic Walking" (with the use of the poles it looks something like cross country skiing). Whatever it's called, the basics are the same. It is fitness walking with specially designed poles. And, it is the proper use of the poles that makes all the difference.

This form of walking was pioneered in the U. S. back in 1985 by cross country skier, ski coach, and long distance runner, Tom Rutlin. Because of some injuries, Tom was unable to use running as an off season form of conditioning for his competitive cross country skiing. He conceived the idea of using cross country ski poles to help him walk more efficiently and build his training base while lessening the impact on the injuries to his lower extremities. In experimenting with this new form of walking, Tom discovered that by using the poles in a very specific way, you not only improved your balance and lessened the stress on your lower body, but you could dramatically increase the involvement of large core muscles in the trunk as well as the back, shoulders, arms and chest so as to maximize the exercise benefits. Tom calls his form of Nordic walking "Exerstriding". You can find more information on Tom and his method of Nordic walking at his web site - Exerstrider.

Unfortunately, cross country skiing was not a popular form of exercise in the U.S. back in the mid 1980's. It was much more popular in Europe, particularly the Nordic countries. By the mid 1990's Nordic walking had become very popular in Finland, and from there it moved into other European countries and then to Canada. Now it is starting to pick up interest and advocates here in the U.S.

One of the interesting things about Nordic walking is that, if the poles are used properly, the involvement of most of the large muscles in the upper body takes place. More than 50% of the muscles in the body are in the upper body. By involving more of them, it is possible to burn up to 70% more calories with every walk. Studies show that 25% to 50% is more realistic for the average person, but some data shows that, with concentrated effort, 70% is possible.

The great thing about pole walking is that all of it's additional benefits come without increasing the amount of time you walk. Here are just a few of those benefits: