Walk Off the Weight

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Perfect Your Walking Form

To maximize the benefits of a walking workout, perfect your form -- perk up your pace and your posture -- by taking these pointers from Vindum, author of Tina Vindum's Outdoor Fitness. Follow Vindum's SCuLPT checklist (below) as you stride, using a repeated visual cue (mailbox, oak tree) as a reminder to maintain this posture throughout, and you'll give your abs 30 minutes of whittling per session!

SHOULDERS Draw your shoulders down and back to open your chest. Imagine squeezing a pencil between your shoulder blades.
CHIN Position your chin so it's parallel to the ground, not jutting forward. (Don't tuck -- picture the roof of your mouth moving straight back.)
LIFTED Lift your ribs away from your hips. Don't puff out your chest: Imagine that puppet strings are pulling your head and chest up.
PELVIS To find a healthy, neutral position for your spine (many of us walk around with a slight arch), tip your pelvis forward and back as far as it can go, then settle it in the middle.
TRANSVERSE Put your hands on your hips, feel the transverse abdominal muscles near your fingertips, and draw them in and up. Remove hands; keep this ab area firm as you breathe.

Next: Fight Stress While You Walk

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Sabrinajphi1 wrote:

Why does most weight stuff always use a low weight person. like the walking stuff. I am interested in the walking info but I cannot walk that fast for a distance. My weight was 265 on July 12th of this year. I am trying and succedding at losing more. Would like to how many calories I should be eating to get down to -like 165. My highest weight was 498lbs.

9/22/2012 06:41:45 AM Report Abuse

Chinchilla wrote:

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12/13/2011 01:27:45 PM Report Abuse

tessmcnulty wrote:

What a brilliant magazine, I love it ! Sadly I don't think I can subscribe I live in England.

6/10/2011 12:16:06 AM Report Abuse

janeckel2 wrote:

Love it. I sit in front of a computer all day so any tips to help the butt, I am all for it!

4/26/2011 10:24:39 AM Report Abuse

anonymous wrote:

I think your help would be very helpful. Thank you

2/3/2011 04:39:53 PM Report Abuse