Pedals and Pedometer Steps’ posts have concentrated on walking and pedometer steps specifically, although the “pedals” part is important as well. It just doesn’t fit that well in a pedometer steps blog, as you probably realize, because a bike doesn’t register on a pedometer that well.
The video above from Trey Zepeda contains some good walking and cycling tips using a treadmill and exercise cycle. These are great workout options and starting with these 2 pieces of equipment makes for variety and good cardio.
Using a ‘real’ bike had been an ambition for me over many years. I’m probably one of the few who didn’t learn to ride as a kid and although I have ridden occasionally as an adult, it has never ‘taken’. It does seem to be a great way to exercise and it seems to me that bike riders are rarely overweight.
As with walking it is not my ambition to join a bike club but to add to the variety of my exercise routine in a way which is fun, with lots of options to built cycling into my lifestyle. The fact that biking can be social is also a factor however this is not its main attraction.
Pedometer steps is my favorite way to walk for weight loss because it becomes easy to amalgamate within your life. It can be an enjoyable and effective lifestyle, has travel options and contributes to the other daily tasks. Cycling doesn’t have quite the flexibility of pedometer steps to fit into your daily life unless you ride to work, go to school or shop, visit neighbors or the dry cleaners on your bike.
However the combination of the two seems to cover some very good exercise options for an outdoor lifestyle and of course the indoor options are also good for the times that outdoors is not your venue of choice. With these indoor options for cycling there is no necessity to have any bike riding skill so these are immediately accessible for the beginner as well.
In the long term as I restructure my lifestyle to maintain rather than lose weight, I anticipate making cycling one of my main weight maintenance activities.
I am not abandoning pedometer steps as my weight loss option as, compared to walking for weight loss, taking up cycling in the outdoors, requires much more involvement from me than walking. Walking doesn’t require special skills, equipment, proper tracks, skill or training, etc. The gym options are good and spin classes excel for weight loss and fitness.
I’m looking forward to taking up cycling. Who knows it may be just ’round the corner,
This post will continue on from my last Pedals and Pedometer Steps post: Pedometer Steps Spiral. In summary that post was revealing the playing field, so to speak, of pedometer steps counting and walking for weight loss. It is similar to the training done for playing a game such as football, rather than the actual game itself. All that ongoing preparation (walking) is done for the intermittent reward of playing the game (weight loss).
Also part of the process is a natural increase in your body’s ability to perform its set tasks. To progress in your ’sport’ or weight loss, means increasing your exercise and training to a level where new efforts also increase the results. Hence the spiral-while continuing to do similar routines the intensity increases.
Any serious physical activity requires preparation and execution for success. If this is part of your job then you do it everyday and this is equivalent to mental and physical training.
My point from the last post was that aiming for the small increases in performance or results, appreciating the ones you achieve and then setting the bar a little higher, is the best way to get a large result. So with your pedometer steps’ target you should look to increase it by comfortable amounts until you reach your limit for doable daily steps. Then you can look at making a monthly target which incorporates longer walks than you might be able to do regularly. If weight loss has ceased with your daily 10000 steps then adding a monthly long walk and increasing pedometer steps by an additional 15000 to 20000 for the month, should start it again. This would bring your daily average an additional 500+ steps. All these small changes count. Sometimes the results are so small, or your eye is so used to seeing yourself, that you don’t see them. At some point you will.
Others who understand this are your best support. How you get this support is part of your preparation for success.
The about-to-be- published next edition ofThe New! Walker is covering an issue which Pedals & Pedometer Steps feel strongly about-the support necessary for success in weight loss. It focuses on the difference between feeling bereft with the overwhelming issue of so much weight to lose and the luxurious feeling of having the support which helps you to do your best easily, while feeling good about it.
Where you are, compared to other participants depends upon where your walking fitness training starts, and like other things in life, it has a tendency to repeat or cycle back at a different level i.e. spiral.
The number of pedometer steps to target for you is dependent upon several factors. This is why Pedals & Pedometer Steps generally recommends you wear a pedometer for several days prior to entering a fitness program. Doing this ensures you know what is the real starting point. Average pedometer steps are often taken to be 3000 steps in 30 minutes as a recommended walk. A taller, fitter person, walking on a pathway will probably number more steps in the same time. By noting your pedometer steps results each night over 3-5 consecutive days, totalling them and them finding the average, you will have your personal ‘level’.
For someone who has not exercised in some time this starting point may be disappointing. Pedometer steps increase rapidly though. Just watch and enjoy as the numbers keep on going up. Finding your level, starting at your level, is not failure in advance. It sets you up to rocket up the results chart. Success breeds confidence a major factor in exercise and weight loss.
Just in case you’re wondering-doesn’t confidence breed disrespect i.e. now I’m so wonderful I don’t need good health or to lose weight?
Confidence helps you to reach your goals. It enables you to stretch your efforts beyond what you would have done. This can be called over-confidence but unless you have made a ridiculous commitment, it is not, it is finding your limits. Again this allows you to position yourself in such a way as to make the changes necessary to achieve and again make rapid progress, towards your unchanged goal.
Over my lifetime I had a tendency to see any ‘failure’ when trying for bigger and better results, as a sentence: The end. When I attempted smaller and better though, I found the results were like rungs of a ladder. Easy to climb to the top!
A quick walk around the block early in the morning is a great way to start the day and get your pedometer steps off and running. It should wake up your mind and body which is what we all need for a fun filled and refreshing day. Often inspiration will hit, as the peace and isolation of early mornings allows lots of clear thinking.This is also a great way to plan for pedometer steps later in the day. Perhaps a walk to the coffee shop or lunch place, pick up the kids, to the bank and to pick up the newspaper.
Just as a long drive to work can be an advantage- use this time to transition from home to work, partition home and family problems in a “later” file, review your mental ‘to do’ list for today’s duties- so a walk before work or other commitments which will benefit from forethought (and what doesn’t?) can do the same. The walk can act as a switch, alerting your brain that you are now seriously intending to get busy.
In the past it may have been that first cup of coffee or tea, a ciggie, reading the newspaper, etc. These are all transition rituals which allow your brain to switch from one mode of response to another. Now that you are a pedometer steps person it can be a short starter walk.
This doesn’t mean giving up pleasurable habits unless they get in the way of your well being. It is better to have a number of positive triggers which allow you easy phasing into and out of particular mind modes which best suit different tasks. For instance if today is to be a hands on creative day then relaxing, preparing my right brain for success helps me be ready straight away. This saves time.
Walking can be one of these positive triggers for you. It has additional advantages by adding to your pedometer steps count.
In these small walks much time can be saved by combining tasks.
Enjoy the challenge of finding the way to walk 10,000 steps and achieve more than ever in any one day, every day.
Hi to all of the Pedals & Pedometer Steps readers who are signing up for The New! Walker, the first issue is ready to go. I want it to be good so apologies for the delays but the button will be pushed soon.
I am returning to an ongoing topic of interest-what to do if you are injury prone or just want to get the best out of counting pedometer steps.
Normal bodily wear and tear is no reason for alarm. If you are someone who has been a couch potato for some time e.g. regularly looking for ways to avoid walking or hurting something by turning over in bed, then pretend that discomfort is your friend, and is really pointing to the need for preliminary checks before taking your vehicle on a long drive over many days.
Yep, zero to 100 mph is not likely for your “vehicle” which I’m sure you realize is meant to symbolize the equivalent type of ‘tune up’ required for your body.
More seriously, using pedometer steps is so good because it enables you to gradually increase your exertion so your body adjusts to these changed expectations in a comfortable manner. Muscles, tendons and joints can acclimatize to unusual (for them) extensions and contractions, given the correct encouragement.
Sudden movements, sudden load increases, sudden climate change-all ’shock’ the system. This can have a ‘wake up’ effect, and certainly the effort required by the body to cope means many calories burned, but it is ultimately not for the best.
Your body’s muscles have rested for a long time (if this is the case) and need preparation, and that preparing enables you to build up the muscle strength. Once released, with the strength to do it, the result is phenomenal.
Use a pedometer and count pedometer steps for the best results.
On the other hand it may be that over time you have allowed small encroachments into your well being without attending to them. They have just not seemed to be worth doing anything about. ‘It comes with age’ is a favorite excuse. Maybe there are technological or medical answers but you haven’t looked or persevered with the options. Do what you can, seek answers, and know that feeling good about your body helps a lot. High expectations for short term results is a pressure cooker environment to which most of us do not respond well.
If twenty years of putting on weight, something wrong with your feet, wonky ankles, etc., have stopped you exercising then be prepared for the long haul of working through these issues. While you do that, finding alternate ways of feeling good about the changes you’re making will help. In other words, find a way of enjoying the new way whether or not your weight changes. There is less tension involved and less need to give it all up if you don’t lose weight in the short term.
What do I mean?
Learn to love aspects of the new diet, or food, or paths you are walking. Find advantages in what you are doing even if initially it seems like failure. The old adage that success is on the other end of failure is always true. Oprah wasn’t Oprah from day one. You only have to look at old tapes to see that.
Intensifying your workout with pedometer steps is easy.
The benefit of doing high intensity exercises is that it increases the calorie burn and this is the attraction of the more extreme exercise sessions that dominate weight loss exercise since TV’s The Biggest Loser has become so popular. Calories burned must be greater than calories consumed for the weight loss to begin. The higher the calories burned the more weight lost.
In light of my last post where I point out that for weight loss to be effective over the long term i.e. the results last, the every day for a lifetime approach is more likely successful than a cramming effort reminiscent of school exams.
Having said that I do not mean that pedometer steps is limited to low intensity calorie burn spread out daily. There is a lot of positive effect in the strategic use of high intensity exercise.
For most people continued active living results in effective ongoing weight management after weight loss, therefore this needs to be established as a normal routine in your life. For this to happen it requires a consistent process done often enough to become a pleasure and desirable activity.
When enthusiasm for the desired results (quick weight loss) over rides ignorance about the level of activity then failure can often result. If you are not normally active then taking on exercise without finding your limits first can cause overload and giving up.
Measured use, and enjoyment of high intensity exercise, is a great way to stay in shape and increase the variety and options in addition to pedometer steps counting.
If you do want to try some fancy high energy program then:
1. prepare for it-find out what physical stressors are likely, and build up stamina, particular muscles to be used, and prepare by training in these areas.
2. alternatively take the class or do the event at a slow pace, gradually increasing until your fitness reaches the desired level i.e. over several sessions.
3. add high intensity to your pedometer steps by- walking hills; carrying weights (groceries in either hands are good); walking faster in sections by taking smaller steps more quickly (do not lengthen your stride); walk longer; add stairs; carry a child!
Many more options exist to make pedometer steps and other exercise a delightful, varied, favorite activity in a healthy lifestyle.
To further demonstrate the walking meditation technique which Pedals and Pedometer Steps uses, I have taken photos at different points in a walk to illustrate some of my thinking at these times.
Intentionally setting out to quiet and uplift my mind I take an existing route so finding my way is not a distraction. I wear my pedometer as counting pedometer steps is a major part of my goal.
Setting out
I look around for cars and then focus on the general scenery.
Looking Around
Thinks: This looks like a nice path. Nice and quiet.
Tree Trunk
Thinks: Interesting tree trunk.
Walking Meditation
Now my thinking is unconscious as I admire the beauty of the scene, how pleasing it is here and lovely to walk around as the temperature is perfect, the birds are chirping, the water looks inviting and peaceful.
Have you considered combining two of the world’s most popular forms of stress relief- walking and meditation?
As you’re reading Pedals and Pedometer Steps your main interest in walking may be for fitness and weight loss. Also as you’ve developed your regular walking you may well have noticed yourself feeling better generally.
If you are having difficulty fitting everything into your life and you meditate you can have the best of both world’s with a walking meditation. The video below demonstrates the sort of attention one needs to pay to details.
A major part of my pedometer steps progress has come from combining the activities necessary to get the steps’ target and also to act as a release valve for stress and frustration.
Walking in itself is a wonderful way to divert the mind of frustration and release a feeling of well being. Each step enables us to concentrate on where we are physically, noticing details of our surroundings in positive ways.
The major difference between a Pedometer Steps’ Meditation and the Zen version above is that you will have your pedometer strapped on and be walking with intention to exercise your body at the same time as you rest your mind.
Averaging pedometer steps is a great way to balance the effects of different activity levels between your days. For instance if you work in a sedentary role these days may lead to a low pedometer steps total whereas your non-working activity level may lead to high step counts.
One walker I know, found extreme differences in the steps recorded between days at work depending upon the tasks for those days. Days with a lot of sitting led to 3,000 steps where other days performing a standard task which required physical movement could lead to 17,000 steps.
This happens often and is the reason that recording and averaging over several days is the best method for most people to effectively use pedometer walking.
Aiming generally for the daily 10,000+ steps most walking for weight loss programs recommend, will move your activity for that day to the active level. It usually also leads to weight loss.
Starting out you will need to wear a pedometer while pursuing your daily tasks normally. Having established a baseline for your activity this way, it becomes easy to set a pedometer steps target to progressivley move you closer to the 10,000 pedometer steps ideal.
Sometimes though becoming aware of exactly how little some days’ pedometer steps total, is discouraging even to the point of giving up.
Giving up is not the answer.
This is how using an average of daily pedometer steps based on a suitable time period ( weekly or 5 days, for instance) allows you to do what you can on inactive days and put as much extra walking into those days which lend themselves to activity.
Finding your starting point is important and allows you to increase your target steps on a doable basis.
As an example:
If your initial average daily pedometer steps is 3,000 then increasing it by 500 steps for the next period requires only 5 minutes extra walking a day. Generally if possible start by doing 20 minutes of additional walking each day which will add around 2,000 steps at the recommended walking rate of 3,000 steps in 30 minutes. Once you have successfully added 20 minutes walking once a day, add another 20 minute daily walk if possible.
The result here is going from a base level of 3,000 pedometer steps to 5,000 steps to 7,000 steps.
Averaging:
Assume that you as a new walker who has a full time job and household/family commitments have managed to add one walk 3 times during the week, and sometimes an hour’s walk on the weekend. A normal weekend day is generally busy and you do around 6,000 steps.
The results for pedometer steps is:
3 days of 5,000 steps (includes a 20 minute walk); 2 work days unaltered of 3,000 steps; 1 weekend day including a one hour walk of 12,000 steps; 1 weekend day of 6,000 steps. Total: 39,000 steps.
Average Daily Steps: 5,571
Setting Target:
As a general rule add 10% to your previous steps daily average. In this case, this would be 6,128 and you might like to round it up and make it 6,200. By adding 629 additional daily steps- this is approximately 6.5 minutes of extra pedometer walking- and the new target is easily met.
Possible Scedule:
Every day this next week you will need to add a 5 minute walk (3 days- 2 at work and 1 on the weekend), walk for 25 minutes (3 work days) and for 65 minutes (1 weekend day).
Or some variation of the above.
Averaging pedometer steps is a great way to deal with varying results over different days.
This awesome pedometer steps walker used Youtube to show just how determined she needs to be to get her pedometer steps target despite the weather. Maybe you too would find motivation in recording your cold weather methods for getting those pedometer steps going despite the howling wind and the snow.
Start Walking, Get Running, and Lose Weightis filled with common sense strategies for managing the food you eat and simple but very effective exercise plans that ease you into shape.
A Proven Walking or Running Plan For All Ages and Experience Levels...
