Get More Out Of Your Walk

A lot of you have heard me talking about core muscles (those around the stomach and low back) and the need to strengthen them in order to protect your spine and prevent injury. Usually I suggest taking a course like Pilates. While classes that help strengthen the core muscles are a good idea, there are a few things you can do while walking to tighten up those all important core muscles.

While out for your walk, breathe in deeply remembering to breathe down into your stomach (not by lifting your shoulders), and then breathe out hard pulling your navel toward your spine. Hold that for a count of five while walking and then release. Do this ten times, take a brief rest, and repeat two more times.

Here’s another one, do lunges while walking. Keep your spine straight and your stomach muscles tight, step forward two to three feet (find what you can do), keep the knee directly over the ankle that has stepped forward, lift the rear foot off the ground and balance on the forward foot for a moment. Do the same with the other foot. You may want to practice that one in the house before you take it out in public ;-)