Friday 12 July 2013

Walk or Run Your Way to Lower Blood Pressure & Cholesterol Levels

For all runners and walkers here are a couple of notes from Women's Running Magazine that should help keep you motivated, along with a feature I wrote for the magazine for all those looking to make the step up from intermittent running to full run workouts.

Running up that hill - it's worth it after all
A recent study in the International Journal of Sports Physiology Performance showed that a training schedule incorporating fast uphill intervals led to a 2% improvement in 5K times after just 6-weeks.

Walking great, run to save time
A new study suggests that running is about twice as good for your heart as walking.  US researchers analysed 33,060 runners in the National Runners' Health Study and 15,045 walkers in the National Walkers' Health Study and found both forms of exercise resulted in similar reductions in risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and, possibly, coronary heart disease.  Assessing energy expenditure by distance, not by time, they concluded that a 60-minute, moderate-intensity walk had the same benefits as a 30-minute run.

Making the move from walk/run to non-stop running
Make a plan and take your time.  Here's how best to do it.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some of us just aren't built for running but we do achieve at least 3 hours of brisk walking every week with dogs. We watch our diet, don't smoke and keep our weight down and at 65 arew well within the safe limits for bmi and cholesterol and blood pressure. Running isn't a universal panacea - ask Jim Fixx!!

The Tonic said...

Sounds as though you have a great routine in place. Walking, running, dancing, skipping - if it works, we're in favour of it.