Does Lots of Walking at Work Count As Cardio Exercise?
All that walking you do at work does not count as aerobic exercise; stop kidding yourself and learn why you need to do “real” cardio despite aching feet after work.
Aching feet at the end of the workday does not equate to having done a sufficient degree of cardiovascular exercise. Your feet ache; get new shoes.
If your legs are aching after a full day of work, this indicates that you’re not as physically fit as you think you are.
Though aching legs can mean a medical condition involving veins, a deconditioned but otherwise healthy person will often suffer from aching legs after doing a lot of walking at the workplace.
If you’re a medical professional, teacher, maintenance worker, maid/custodian, server, retail employee or in some other line of work that requires you to constantly be walking from point A to point B, you absolutely still need to set time aside, at least twice a week, for structured aerobic activity.
We don’t need to get scientific about this.
We can get anecdotal.
Let’s suppose that your only “exercise” is all the walking you do on the job. And that’s it.
- You don’t do athletics.
- You don’t dance, take fitness classes or do anything else BUT the walking at the workplace.
Then one day you decide to jog for 10 minutes nonstop in your neighborhood. Go ahead, try it. See what happens.
You will feel miserable, especially if you’re overweight.
Here’s another test: Find a long, long hill and briskly walk it. Keep moving, briskly.
What happens? Feels awful, right?
- Jump rope. How long can you go?
- Can you run up a hill?
- Can you run from one end of your street to the other?
- Try hiking. How long before you’re exhausted and need to stop for a rest?
- Can you run across a field of grass or must you stop after just 20 seconds due to breathlessness?
- Can you run up several flights of stairs without stopping?
- Can you even WALK them without feeling beaten down?
Does your heart rate even get elevated while on the job? If hurrying down a corridor drives up your heart rate, this is indicative of poor physical conditioning, not a great workout.
A person in fine shape will not notice an elevated heart rate or get winded upon hurrying down a corridor to make a meeting.
Being on your feet all day at the workplace, doing a ton of walking, does nothing to strengthen the cardiac muscle — unless you’re somehow able to insert periods of very brisk walking, and I mean brisk.
But this is not likely if you’re a server, due to limited space and opportunities.
A medical professional may be able to find opportunities to take 4 mph stints down long corridors. Same with a maintenance worker at that hospital.
But let’s face it: You’d still be limited to just episodic, very brief periods of only 4 mph movement, and even if it was jogging, it’d be too brief to have any marked impact on cardiovascular conditioning.
In other articles I’ve written, I’ve preached the virtues of very brief episodes of movement — but when done intensely, such as a SPRINT down that corridor, or 30 seconds of squat jumps.
But a fast walk? A trot? One minute here and there is marginal towards heart health.
You cannot compare walking all day on the job to, say, 30 minutes of hiking uphill, or time spent in a step aerobics class, or 30 minutes of jogging nonstop.
The walking you do at work is in the name of carrying out your job duties.
Exercise, for heart health, should have an entirely different time slot in your day, reserved just for that. A dedicated time.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/sirtravelalot
Can You Build Arm Muscle Size Running with Hand Weights?
There’s a very logical reason why it’s impossible to build muscle mass in your arms or biceps simply from running with hand weights.
Don’t think for a moment, if you’re wanting to build bigger muscles in your arms or biceps, that you’ll achieve this by holding hand weights while jogging or running.
On the other hand, if you fear growing big muscles from holding hand weights when running or jogging, rest assured, this will never happen.
Anybody in the gym who is seriously training to build arm muscle would laugh at the idea that jogging while holding two-pound hand weights (or five-pound, for that matter) will cause hypertrophy (muscle growth).
This is kind of like saying that if you gained 20 pounds of fat from overeating, and went jogging with this extra weight, that it would trigger an increase in the muscle mass of your arms (since some of that added weight would be in your arms).
Running with hand weights increases the resistance or stress on the body, with that increase mostly concentrated in the arms and shoulders.
But while this is happening, the activity is aerobic, rather than anaerobic. In other words, the activity is duration based with minimal exertion, vs. explosive or power based with maximal exertion, as would be a bench press or barbell curl.
While your hands are holding the weights during your run, slow twitch muscle fibers are being recruited in your arms and shoulders—the same as if you were not holding any weights.
Slow twitch fiber is built for endurance, sustained activity, and these fibers are not capable of growing bigger.
They become more efficient over time at the duration based activity, but they don’t change in size.
This is why long distance runners are not bulked up or thick with muscle.
To build arm size you must impose a relatively heavy load onto these muscles, such as during weightlifting exercises (bench press, row, dip, curl).
Since the arms are bent while the jogger is holding the weights, this indicates that the biceps get the brunt of the load.
But the load is only two more pounds. Thinking that this can build up the biceps is like thinking that standing still and continuously curling two-pound dumbbells for 30 minutes will build up these muscles!
Who tries to build up the arms curling the gym’s tiniest dumbbells for 30 minutes nonstop?
All this will do, whether you’re standing still, seated or running, is increase the stamina in your arms and shoulders as it pertains to keeping the arms bent or repeatedly flexing the elbow with little to no resistance. Nothing more. No change in muscle size.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Sergei Popov, Dreamstine.com
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An older woman need not fear high intensity interval training.
In fact, HIIT is one of the best things an aging woman can do for her body, even if she’s always been sedentary. (more…)
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Best Weight Loss Workouts for Obese or Overweight Women
Don’t give up hope; it’s a matter of working out correctly, not “fat genes.”
Let me show you how to melt the fat safely and get super fit.
When I was a personal trainer at a health club, I didn’t have my obese and overweight female clients doing the workouts that most of the other trainers had their heavy clients doing.
That’s because the other trainers were having their overweight and obese women working out wrong.
Best weight loss workouts if you’re an obese or overweight woman?
First, I’ll tell you what will fail: floor exercises.
This includes endlessly-held planks, any kind of crunching, leg raising or being on all fours, or anything in which your legs are handling a fitness ball.
These aforementioned exercises will strengthen the core, but will not trigger weight loss.
And, these floor exercises are NOT the only exercises you’re capable of doing, either.
Get off the floor mentality and start thinking differently if you want to lose weight and get fitter than you’ve ever been.
Feeling too big lately? Here are your ideal exercises.
• Deadlift
• Squat
• Kettlebell swing
• Seated chest press
• Leg press
• Standing overhead barbell press
• Squat dumbbell press to overhead press
• Lat pull-down
Deadlift. Even if you’re morbidly obese, you can do this — though you may need a modification such as starting out with a far lighter weight than what you feel you need.
Deadlift start position. Freepik
Another modification is having the plates of the barbell atop a single 45 pound plate on the floor to give the starting point a slightly higher up position. Supportive footwear is a must.
This exercise works nearly every muscle group, which means more energy is required (body fat) for post-workout recovery.
Mastering safe form is paramount, especially if you’re significantly overweight.
The deadflit will improve your fitness dramatically, since many activities of daily living are derivatives of the deadlift motion.
Squat. An obese woman may be able to perform the back squat, but if not, you can do squats with the Smith machine or against the wall using a fitness ball (and holding dumbbells as you get more fit).
Ball wall squat. George Stepanek, CreativeCommons
Squats target the legs and butt, and these muscles burn a lot of calories.
As with the deadlift, excellent form is crucial. You’ll probably need to start out with a very light weight to help your body acclimate into proper form and technique.
Kettlebell swing. This, too, can be done despite being morbidly obese, and works many muscle groups at once.
Starting position for a kettlebell swing. Shutterstock/gpointstudio
It’s important to begin with a light kettlebell. In fact, the amount of weight you should use as a beginner will feel lighter than you think you need when you pick the kettlebell off the rack.
But don’t let that fool you. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, kettlebell on floor.
Hinge at hips, grip handle with both hands. Hike it back between legs, keep back flat.
Drive hips forward explosively to swing up to chest height.
Let momentum bring it down, repeat in a smooth rhythm. Use hips, not arms.
Seated chest press. I recommend this over the bench press for very overweight women.
That’s because if you’re pushing out from a horizontal position, your chest/stomach girth is less likely to cut short the range of motion.
Chest press
If you bench press, the range of motion will be cut by your chest/stomach girth, and you’ll end up doing incomplete repetitions.
Leg press. As far as positioning, just about anybody can do this, though depending on the girth of your midsection, you’ll need to have your feet and knees spaced very widely apart.
Leg press. Shutterstock/Aleksey Boyko
But wide spacing is perfectly okay, because in a real life situation where you must squat down to pick something heavy up from the ground, it’s better for your feet to be widely spaced.
Standing overhead barbell press. Morbid obesity will not impede you with this. You are on a perfectly equal playing field with a thinner woman.
As you become stronger at pushing something over your head, your confidence will soar.
Overhead barbell press. Shutterstock/Comeback Images
Squat dumbbell press to overhead press. This is more suitable for a woman of moderately overweight proportions rather than severe obesity.
Technique should be derived from the squat and deadlift, namely, do NOT round your back or lean forward. You’ll need to start with very small dumbbells.
In fact, you should get this motion down with your body weight first before using any weights.
I recommend dumbbells heavy enough to complete 8-12 reps once you’re able to conduct this compound movement with exellent form and light dumbbells.
Take one minute rests in between. Complete four sets. Your thighs do not need to go past parallel, but aim for parallel, to the floor.
Squat to overhead press. Shutterstock/BLACKDAY
Warning: This routine can be very draining, but it’s over in about five minutes and will leave your metabolism elevated even after you’re finished, not to mention dramatically increase fitness level.
Lat pull-down. I recommend this over the seated row because chest/belly girth will not shorten the range of motion.
The weight should be heavy enough to prevent the mistake of pulling the bar below chest level and bending the forearms to parallel to the floor.
Sharon Smith, 71, demonstrates the lat pull-down.
If you’re able to bend the forearms, the resistance is WAY too light and you’re wasting your time.
Guidelines
• Do the exercises twice a week.
• Four sets each.
• If you can do more than 12 reps, the resistance is too light.
• If you can’t complete eight reps, the resistance is too heavy.
• Take one minute to 90 seconds’ rest in between specific exercises.
I can go on in more detail regarding the configuration of sets, rests, days off, muscles worked, etc., with this workout plan, but the information here is a superb starting point for overweight and obese women who have been struggling to lose weight.
Sharon Smith has been in the fitness industry for 25+ years and specializes in the over-40 client.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/ YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV
Second image: Shutterstock/SerdyukPhotography
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Perhaps your muscle twitching started in one spot and then “spread” so that it’s now all over your body and you’re fearing the worst—like ALS?
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Is Your Cardiologist a Personal Trainer? How to Use a Treadmill
It’s cardiologist vs. personal trainer when it comes to how to properly use a treadmill and aerobic exercise in general.
Who wins?
I pointed out to a personal-training client that holding onto a treadmill was a bad habit that disrupted natural gait and did not simulate natural walking.
Her response? “Are you a cardiologist?” She then said her cardiologist told her to walk that way.
I’m not a cardiologist, but my knowledge of exercise science is sufficient for me to know that clutching the front bar of a treadmill also disrupts optimal breathing, can raise blood pressure and also lead to repetitive stress injuries in the hips, which are forced to over-rotate.
My mother years ago underwent multiple bypass surgery.
Her heart surgeon told her that the only exercise she ever needs is to just walk 40 minutes every day.
The patient pre-surgery was sedentary; did no exercise.
Post-surgery, she hears from her surgeon, “Walk 40 minutes a day. That’s all the heart needs.”
Because my mother frequently went shopping and lived in a big house at the time, and did all the housework, she convinced herself that this walking recommendation was automatically built into her day-to-day life!
Hence, she never committed to any 40 minute walking sessions.
The cardiothoracic surgeon’s exercise recommendation was too close to that of baseline living!
It’s one thing to suggest starting out with a 40 minute walk.
But to present this as the be-all, end-all, encourages patients to make no changes in their physical activity levels.
They may think, “I don’t have to go on 40 minute walks; I do plenty of walking every day on the job!”
At a minimum, not a maximum, you should get sustained aerobic exercise several times a week.
A treadmill is a good place to start.
How to Properly Use a Treadmill
Right! Shutterstock/gpointstudio
Unless you have a mobility impairment, there is no need to hold on — other than for momentary balance checks or steadiness while changing the settings, drinking a beverage, turning to greet someone and getting a heart rate.
A cardiologist may tell you to hold on to protect himself or herself from being blamed in case the patient falls off the treadmill and breaks an arm after being told by the cardioloist they should swing their arms.
But ask yourself this: How is the human body designed to walk?
Wrong!
How old were you when you began walking without clinging onto anything?
If you do not hold onto a treadmill, your body will be forced to balance all on its own, with no external help, and to assume correct posture.
Your balance will improve. You’ll burn more calories (the calorie display doesn’t change whether you’re holding on or not).
Holding onto a treadmill will train your body to use a walker. Do you want that?
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
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Top image: Shutterstock/wavebreakmedia
Sources:
sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110829070507.htm
sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604101529.htm
sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110405194101.htm
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There are many things to consider like impact, comfort and boredom! I vote for the treadmill.
If you dread a particular piece of cardio equipment–and many don’t care for the treadmill, then it isn’t the best kind for high intensity interval training for you because you’ll never push yourself as hard on it as you will on the cardio machine that you like much better. (more…)
