Power walking?

Z

zellybelly

Cathlete
Any power walkers out there? I was thinking of taking it up but I have always had a bit of snobby view of it like "running, ellptical machine, etc." is way better and more efficient. But man some of the women I see doing it are in INCREDIBLE shape. How did you get started? Any tips or suggestions would be great!!!

Thanks
 
It really is a terrific, injury-free way to get your cardio in. I've been walking for exercise for about 25 years, and so has my Mom. In my school days, I just walked as fast as I could with my walkman on. Remember those? Once I was earning enough to join a gym though, I was able to make it more challenging with the incline on the treadmill. If you wear a HR monitor and use a TM with a high incline, the cardio effects are the same as running or elliptical, with less wear and tear on the body than running. I've recently made the switch to the elliptical, and I enjoy it, but the cardio effects aren't any different. It's good to change off from time to time.

I fill up my nano with my favorite songs, and then adjust the speed and the incline of the TM to fit each song. So there's a lot of variety. I spend the same amount of time as I do on the elliptical. My HR soars on both.
 
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Power walking is excellent exercise, as Nancy said.

I have been doing it as my main form of cardio for the last three years. This Summer I couldn't run, so I power walked my socks off for several months and it keeps me in the same great shape that doing Cathe cardio regularly does, i.e., when I regularly power walk my usual 6 miles distance on the treadmill, I can do Step Blast, RS, etc, no problem.

You will not get injured doing it. You need to wear running shoes, not walking shoes, because when you power walk you go fast and you need the same flexibility in the shoe for that fast heel-ball-toe transition that runners enjoy with running shoes. The shoes marketed for walking are too rigid.

When you power walk at fast speeds (my top whack goes from 5.5 - 6 mph), you are forcing the body to go as fast as it can without breaking into a run, which it naturally wants to do at those speeds. You are constantly holding it back from adopting a form of movement which would in fact be a more efficient mode of travel, i.e., running!, and as a result you use greater energy to power walk at very fast speeds that you would use to run or jog at the same and slightly faster speeds. I use more energy power walking at 5.5-6 mph for 6 miles that if I ran those same miles at 6.4 mph. (Bear in mind that we all walk and run at different speeds. What is fast for me may not be for you or may not be attainable for you, it depends on your height, leg length, natural speed and movement efficiency/gait mechanics. I'm 5'8" with long legs and I walk fast, always.)

The great thing about living in a hilly area, as I don't in flat old MI, is you can get some great work in for the glutes and hamstrings with all those up-hill fast walks. Excellent stuff! Duplicate it, as Nancy suggests, on the treadmill by whacking up those inclines.

I always find that if I try and power walk with TV on as distraction, I never do so well. Your own choice of up-beat music is always a better motivator. I might give up on a 15% incline at 4.5 mph after 1 minute, but if I am powering through a Madonna dance number (or whoever grabs your fancy), then I will keep going at this pace for several songs in a row. Sometimes it is your feet that keep pace with the music, as in the high inclines, but at other times it is your rhythmic breathing that keeps time with the music, for me this occurs at top speeds. Either way, it works just great!

You don't need huge impact, nor do you need to beat your body into submission in order to exercise that heart and keep the mid-life fat gain at bay. Try it out and let us know how you do, OK?

Clare
 
Clare

Do you find that walking on an incline has the same leaning effects that running would??
I have found that when I run for too long (1hr or so) I spend a couple of days just recovering my knees. I will be more than happy to give up on running if power walking does the trick. I have also found that Leslie Sansone's w/o are very effective, that is mostle what I do when I can't run no more
Thanks in advance
 
I started power walking when I got my dogs. I walked long distances every day but got kind of bored. It totally changed when I got my Cardio Coach workouts. Loved the music and Coach Sean is pretty inspiring.

I just adjusted the sprints to faster walks and there are quite a bit of hill challenges in the workout. The hills actually burn more calories for me than running.

After losing quite a bit of weight I started running a few sprints, mainly to get my high-energy dogs tuckered out.

Now I vary the power walking days with running days but always with my iPod and Cardio Coach. I still don't run hills but the walk up the hills is quite a bit faster than when I started out.

I agree with one of the previous posters to get running shoes for power walking. I started out with walking shoes and got terrible shin splints which went away when I put my running shoes on.

HTH
 
Hi!

I know that the calories burned statistics that treadmills quote you during and after your workouts are not accurate, but by the same token they are not accurate for runners either! They can still give you an idea of how hard you have worked.

When I power walk my 6 miles, starting with 5 min warm up at 4.8 mph, then heading up to 5.5 mph and from there doing sections of speed intervals (2 mins at 6 mph, followed by 3 mins at 5.6 mph, repeat lots of times) and alternating with sections of high incline-lower speed intervals (say, 4 mins at 10% at 4.6 mph, then 4 mins at 12% at 4.3 mph, then 4 mins at 15% at 4.0 mph for example) and keep this up for the full 6 miles, then my calories burned read-out can be anywhere from 750 - 1000. So, even though that number probably is not accurate, it still tells you that I have burned a lot of calories, and even if the number is off by a couple of hundred, that's good enough for me!

So, yes, power walking will lean you out. But, as with any form of exercise, you have to put forth the effort and be consistent with your training. I don't do cardio more than 3 times per week. I like to train with heavy weights, so 3 cardios per week is enough. It is not enough to get on the treadmill and coast along. It has to feel like great effort. The high inclines work will be hard. I never have any trouble motivating myself to do these workouts and I am disciplined about them. I remember vividly doing Imax 2 and I work the treadmill in the same way. I push hard during those intervals, I count down the seconds/minutes on the wall clock or time display and I keep at it. Walking along while reading a magazine won't get you lean, just entertained! But all-out-effort power walking will.

The only draw back is that it takes longer to power walk 6 miles than it does to run them, but if you are fully engaged in your workout and enjoying your music, then what the hell?! Right?

Clare
 
This thread has me inspired...I think I'll grab my mp3 player tomorrow and head for the hills! Thanks ladies! :cool:
 
jodijodi said:
This thread has me inspired...I think I'll grab my mp3 player tomorrow and head for the hills! Thanks ladies! :cool:
Click to expand...

I'm inspired too!! When my son, now 3 1/2, was a baby, power walking (while pushing the stroller) was my only exercise. With no money for the gym and no babysitter, it was just about my only option. I would put him in the stroller every morning and power walk for 45-60 minutes, and it really helped to shed the baby weight, and my legs looked awesome!!

I'm in the mood to strap on my weighted vest and go for a good, fast walk sometime soon!!
 
Power walking is my go-to workout for the summer.

Here's some info I once posted at VF in response to a similar question:

I do what I'll call Power Walking: I try to go as fast as I can, using many racewalk techniques (which got from books and DVD's).

I've read several books on the subject (I like to be thorough!) and these are the two best ones, IMO:

"Walking Fast" by Therese Iknoian :
http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Fast-...20202102&sr=1-1

"Race Walk Like A Champion" by Jeff Salvage:http://www.amazon.com/Race-Walk-Lik...20202203&sr=1-3

You can also buy this last oneat his site, with a DVD that goes along with it:
http://www.racewalk.com/defaultRW.asp

The site also has lots of info on it.

The basics are :
Stride: land on the heel of the front foot, keeping the foot close to you (don't try to stride far in front, about 30% of the stride is in front, 70% behind you). Roll through the foot as it passes under you, pushing off from the back big toe.

Keep your stride narrow: practice 'walking the line' by finding a straight line on the road and trying to keep your heels on both sides of it.

Hip movement: though some see this as a 'side-to-side' move, it isn't (you want to avoid any side-to-side movements, and keep all movements front-to-back). It is a opening/rotation of the hip. Ikonian suggests to concentrate on the back leg, and the front will come naturally (more naturally for women, IMO, especially if you have a bit of a 'wiggle' in your walk
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) . As the leg passes under you. try to open your hip back and leave the foot on the ground as long as possible before pushing of the big toe.

You can practice the hip movement by walking in place, feet not leaving the ground, in front of a mirror. Walk with your heels barely leaving the ground, knees bending and straightening, and swivel your hips back and forth like the agitator of a washing machine. As the right hip goes forward, the left hip goes back. Keep this 'forward and back' movement in mind when walking.

Arms: keep your arms bent at about 90 degrees, and swing them from your thumb grazing your waistband and the back to the fist being about chest height in front (any higher is inefficient, and can stess the shoulders). Keep the fists lightly closed, not clenched. Keep your elbows close to your sides, and don't let your hands cross the center of the body in the front (they may come in somewhat, but it shouldn't be excessive--again, movement is front-to-back). By 'punching' the elbows backward, you can use the power of the lats to pick up speed (and work the upper body more) ( I like to play with technique, and find that just by adding the more powerful elbow 'punch' to the back, I can go much faster, but I can't keep it up too long! I usually don't do the full 'thumbs graze the waistband' swing to the back).

I started using these techniques early last summer, and would concentrate on one or the other on various parts of my walk as I was getting used to them.

And if you aren't striviing to walk at 8 mph (which is the speed of some champions), you don't need to stress the hip technique (which is the oddest looking part, IMO).

If you just walk as fast as you can, to a point where your body wants to run, but don't, you will be burning many more calories than jogging at the same pace. You can even start out jogging, then go to a walk, trying to keep the same or similar pace. (but remember, one works up to speed: I started at about 4 mph, which is what is considered a regular 'brisk' walking pace, and gardually got faster from there).


On the 4th of July this year, I did a 2-mile walk, and ended up in 4th place (drat! Only 1-3 got plaques---you can read about my adventures here: http://forum.videofitness.com/showt...ghlight=walking ). My average speed was 5.95 mph (faster than in my regular walks, which usually now average 4.5-4.6 mph---the cooler weather, the shorter distance, and the competition added to my speed!)

Some people use the term 'Power walking' to refer to a style using long, exaggerated arm swings (the woman who won the walk I was on did this---but IMO, looked much sillier than I did with her long swinging arms).

HTH!
 
I have a follow-up question for you, I live in South Carolina we have no hills unless you coun't the speed bumps in the neighbor hood and I don't have access to a treadmill to get the inclines and speed. So basically am I better off sticking with the ellptical and the bike to burn the calories?
 
My apologies for posting here, zelly. I thought "power walking" just referred to the kind of walking you do for cardio. I guess I should have looked it up! I started walking because I wanted to avoid impact, strapped on a HRM, and made sure I stayed within my aerobic zone for 45 minutes. I vary between a maximum of 4mph with an incline of 7, and a minimum of 2.4mph with an incline of 17. Using my arms, I can get my HR over 150 most of the time. Probably because I'm not an athlete. My pokey walking would never work outside. I guess if you do real race walking, then you can do it outside. Sorry for jumping in on a topic I know nothing about!
 
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Nancy, I can't speak for zelly, and I can't know exactly what she had in mind when she asked the question, but I found your information helpful regardless. I don't think there is any need to apologize.

zelly, I am hoping Kathryn will chime in here, but I seem to remember reading something about doing walking lunges to get your heart rate up, and maybe also wearing a weighted vest to make the walking more challenging.

I walked this morning, and it went very well. I was easily distracted, though, with the beautiful fall weather, waving to neighbors, etc. In the beginning I could feel that my HR was up, but later on I don't think I was pushing myself as hard as I could as my mind wandered a bit. The hills were great, though. I also think that towards the end, my legs and joints were getting a bit sore, so I had to slow down (thus lowering my heart rate.) I suspect that as I do it more and my legs get used to it, I will be able to push myself harder to raise my HR more. I think I may have DOMS tomorrow...so I definitely got something out of it!
 
Zellybelly:

No. What you are better off dong is a combination of both. You can use the flatter terrain of the Carolina great outdoors to power walk and work on your speeds. Use the elliptical to target either quads, or glutes, or hamstrings more by changing the resistance and the other parameters.

This way, you get it all done and you vary the ways the muscles are worked which is good news.

Clare
 
Nancy:

You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. Your post was a helpful response that made a valid contribution to the topic.

Most people refer to power waling as what you, Kathryn and I do, no matter what our different approaches, speeds, musical accompaniments! Race walking is different, it involves the swivelly hips thing and requires incredible training and discipline. Power walking is accepted in common parlance to refer to fitness walking, as practiced by some of my favourite Cathe.com people!

Quit apologizing! You did good.

Clare
 
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