You know what the best kind of exercise is? The one you enjoy. That is the essence of Operation Move. Not running, not cycling, not races. But getting out there and doing what you enjoy to do.
And as far as exercises go, walking is a pretty outstanding one. In fact if we were going to get all technical it’s probably superior in terms of health benefits to most other exercises out there. It keeps your heart rate in the optimal fat burning zone. It’s low impact. It strengthens your bones and improves your fitness.
I love the flexibility of walking. You can do it with friends and still have a conversation, I can take my camera with me and do a bit of a photo walk, I can combine it with a bike ride with the kids and there have been many times when I’ve been not able to run when walking has been my best friend.
In January we’d like to kickstart with a walking challenge. I think you’ll probably love it as much as I do. I picked 400 minutes because half an hour, three times a week is about when those health benefits start kicking in and if I did my math correctly it would also work out to be about a full marathon distance over the course of the month which I thought was pretty cool.
Want to take up the challenge? Join the group here. Make sure you post your walks in the group (either a link to your workout or picture of it on your phone) or associated forum because we will be giving out prizes for longest distance, fastest pace, longest overall distance and greatest elevation. And if you’d like to share on social media you can use the hashtag #walk400challenge.
The lovely Deana will be doing the challenge with you and will be moderating the group and forum to make sure that you get all the inspiration and support you need!
Think you can aim for more than 400? I enthusiastically support that. I’d love to hear your goals either here in the comments or in our group.