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Aug 14

Lose weight, feel great on a budget – Deming Headlight

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Larry R. Miller, For the Headlight Published 2:23 p.m. MT Aug. 14, 2017

Columnist Larry R. Miller(Photo: Courtesy Photo)

This summer we have been camp hosting at an Oregon Trail day use visitor park. For my daily exercise I usually walk the 3 mile loop to open the gate, go up to the turn around and around the main trail twice a day rather than drive. A lot of my walking time is spent at a very brisk pace but I walk not only for the exercise but also to commune with nature.

Recently I read an article by Dr. Aaron Baggish an associate director of the Cardiovascular Performance Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In the article he gave some advice on how to dramatically increase the health benefits of walking.

His advice: Try interval walking.

When interval walking was compared to regular walking, researchers found that 30 minutes of interval walking four days a week greatly benefitted overall health through improved aerobic fitness, lowered blood pressure, reduced weight and increased leg strength.

He says interval walking is a great way to get the most exercise bang for your buck. It improves endurance, reduces blood pressure and helps with weight loss.

In a decade long study, Japanese researchers have been studying the benefits for seniors of interval walking for over a decade. Researchers from the Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine split 696 men and women between the ages of 58 and 72 into two groups. Both groups walked four days a week for thirty minutes a day.

Researchers had one group walk normally at 40% of their full exertion for three minutes. Then they had them speed up to a 70% exertion rate for three minutes. The walkers repeated these intervals five times for 30 minutes total.

The other group walked at a leisurely 40% exertion rate for the entire 30 minutes.

After five months, the researchers compared the two groups for overall fitness, health and weight loss.

Participants who walked casually showed very little improvement. The interval-walking group showed a 12% increase in aerobic fitness, their blood pressure went down 13% and they had greater overall leg strength.

The interval walkers also decreased their overall lifestyle-related disease score. (LRDS) LRDS is a marker related to smoking, drinking, body fat ratio and weight. The interval walkers reduced their unhealthy habits, lost fat and gained muscle mass. (This never appeared in the information but I would guess they also increased their bone density and improved their balance which would decrease the likelihood of a fall and broken bones.)

The researchers continued to follow the participants for a decade longer. They found that the interval walkers even those who decreased the regimen to three days a week maintained or increased their health gains. The study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Next week I will cover how to interval walk for maximum health benefits.

Larry R. Miller is a freelance writer and photographer working with the US Forest Service. Contact him at larryrmiller@mail.com, use Headlight article in the subject line to not end up in the spam.

Read or Share this story: http://www.demingheadlight.com/story/news/2017/08/14/lose-weight-feel-great-budget/566344001/

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Lose weight, feel great on a budget - Deming Headlight

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