Measuring Your Health Improvement

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How do you know your brisk walk or jogging is improving your health? First, you need to regularly check with your medical doctor. He or she can do tests to see if your health is improving or what needs to be adjusted.

Second, observe yourself. Do you still easily get tired after a short workout? Do you easily run out of breath after a short brisk walk? Or do you have a normal heart rate, normal breathing and still packed with energy after a prolonged period of workout compared before?

If you feel stronger after a long period of workouts or feel more able to do the same, then your health is improving. You'd also feel younger and easily move faster, too, without much effort.

When I recover from sickness (like now, I just had a bout of bad cough and cold) and re-start my workouts, I often feel easily exhausted initially. But after several days or weeks, I'd feel different---like I was 10 years younger. The thing here is never to force yourself to do a lot at once. Have the patience and discipline to gradually workout, give your body enough time to adjust. This works more to make you healthier and stronger rather than pushing yourself beyond your limit all of a sudden.

When I start again from zero, I start with leisurely walks. This is also true during times I slept late the night before and didn't have enough sleep. I just wander around early morning and enjoy the neighborhood. I also do light jogging-in-place and some shadow boxing. Then probably 10 push-ups and bend the spring bar twice or thrice.

Then I gradually work up from there.

Another way I see myself improving health-wise is when I eat just right but have enormous energy for physical activities. This means my body systems are all thumbs up. My body absorbs a lot of nutrients from the good foods I eat. Also, when I feel good and am easily patient, kind and understanding, I know I'm in tiptop shape. Being moody often means something's wrong with your health---physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.

But these are just first aid measurements. I still see to it I consult my medical doctor, whether I feel good or not. And you should, too. Visit your doctor regularly.

Here's my e-book on how I keep healthy and fit doing simple workouts.

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The Switch from Brisk Walking to Jogging

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After you've been brisk walking long enough, you can gradually shift to jogging. I don't recommend anyone doing jogging or running at once. There has to be a gradual switching process. Even for young athletes.

What I mean is, young athletes should have a warm-up phase before breaking into a jog or run. The warm up can be a brisk walk for a minute or two. This makes running or jogging safe for the muscles, preventing them from suffering injury.

Injury is the number one thing you have to avoid, especially injury in your ankle tendons and ligaments, your forelegs and others. If you don't walk or jog properly. you can also develop injuries on your knees or hips. And this creates problems to your sports performance. whatever your sport is. And the first thing on proper walking or jogging is warm up.

With adults, I strongly recommend doing brisk walks for some months before switching to jogging. This conditions the leg muscles and the body before you take on a more strenuous course. In my case, I brisked walked for 2 years (after my muscle trauma incident) and then started to mix brisk walking with jogging.

Another time I stopped jogging for a while, I again started with brisk walks for some 6 months or so before I proceeded to jogging and running.

And that's another vital tip---initially mixing walking with jogging before doing full-swing jogging. And much later, mixing jogging with running, and then all three.

The important thing is to avoid shocking the body with sudden and intense workouts. Be gentle and kind with your body, even if you're still young, and give it time to adjust to new physical culture. Shocks against it will prove unhealthy (even dangerous) later, especially when age starts to get the better of you.

And the last but not least tip is to always consult your medical doctor first before trying any physical exercise. Yesterday, I was talking to a 74-year old guy at the Capitol Medical Center clinics. He underwent quadruple bypass recently even if he has been active with tennis since he was a teenager. And one colleague of his suddenly dropped dead right after bouts of tennis.

Why did all these happen?

They failed to check with a medical doctor. Never assume good health, although you feel in tiptop shape. Always consult your medical doctor, especially on brisk walking and jogging.

Okay, it's 6.30 am and time for me to go out and jog now! See you all later.

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When You Can't Brisk Walk

There are days when going out and brisk walking is impossible. Like during a storm or in rainy days. But I remember my dad undaunted by rainy days when he brisk-walked in the morning. He wore wooden sandals (bakya), salakot (a native hard hat) and raincoat and hit the streets with an umbrella.

But if you're not like my dad, then this option can be yours---squats in place.

Sometimes, my work keeps me glued to my seat and I can't even go out to jog--especially when I have deadlines to beat. What do I do? I do squats-in-place, aside from jogging-in-place. I do several sets of squats through the day. This means once in a while, I get up, leave the desktop and do squats. It's so easy.

You don't need a big space or special equipment. As long as you can stand and sit where you are, you can do squats. You can be in your office attire (if you're an employee} or you can be in your shorts or underwear (half-naked) if you're a freelancer working at home like me.

Squats workout the legs, forelegs, ankles, a bit of the tummy, butt and your heart and lungs. It's a good workout and you may do it with or without extra weights. Your own body weight will do, especially if you're not competing professionally and just want to stay trim like me.

If you prefer heavier squat workouts, then carry some weights with your hands. You may hold dumbbells or do squats with a barbell. Or you may carry a sack of rice on your shoulders.

When I was in college, I used to do about 200 squats or more, 50 or more per set in 4 sets. Everyday before I left for university. Today, I narrowed it down to 15 to 20 per set, augmenting it with outdoor jogs and jogging-in-place. But I aim to recover the 200+ squats, Godwilling.

I do my squats by sitting on my forelegs and then standing up straight.

But then, after my squat sets, sometimes I begin to miss the outdoors. So there are times I still go out in the late afternoon to do my jogs or brisk walks.

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Walking with a Bad, Bad Cold

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As I'm doing this segment, I have a bad, bad cold. Nose is heavily clogged, headache, runny nose and a funny feeling that you might have a fever. Thank God the fever is arrested by something. God is good.

Even if you are a health buff careful about your condition, the cold virus just penetrates through at times. Even if you keep eating oranges and other fruits and drinking water. Even if you supplement with Vitamin C.

It sucks. And then you see people smoking cigarettes early in the morning and drinking liquor all their lives not bothered by colds at all. I just shake my head in wonder.

So, what do I do? I walk.

Anyway, walking is a natural activity. You really have to walk around even if you're sick. So just yesterday and the other day, I walked a lot. Today, I took a rest the whole day and drank lots of water.

Walking helps you analyze things and figure out problems, especially mysteries in life, and find some meaning. Then strangely, you feel light and happy and a bit care free about any problem. You feel at ease. The problem is still there looking at you with its funny, silly face, but at least you feel hopeful something good is going to happen. Something or someone will kick out the problem.

Getting sick is one way nature toughens our immune system more. Did you know that? The virus is allowed entry into our system so our antibodies can identify them and know exactly what to do the next time they encounter the virus, especially a new virus. So your body resistance improves. But before that can happen, you have to get sick first.

Everything happens for a good purpose. See? I stick to that in times I don't understand what's happening to me. And of course, walking helps a lot here.

So, never stop walking. Stop complaining and just walk.

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Morning, Afternoon or Evening Walk?

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Any of the above. You can brisk walk any time you want. Sometimes I do it at noon. I get tired writing stuffs for online clients and feel the stress. So sometimes I get up and leave home for a while and brisk walk around the block. Just to get my blood circulation going good. Sometimes I just walk leisurely to the village park.

But I think there are more advantages when brisk walking early in the morning. After a long sleep (6 to 8 hours at night) your body needs some perk-up exercise to "wake it up." No doubt, you need good rest but staying rested a long time is also disadvantageous. Your body also needs to move around a lot.

Here's an article on effective ways I move about and that keep me healthy and fit. Click here!

Early morning is when you've rested well enough and ready for a good brisk walk. Afternoon is sometimes too hot, even at 5 pm (except perhaps in December to February). And besides, you've been battered by stress long enough in the day.

Evening is when your body needs to relax. But on second thought, exercises like brisk walk can effectively fight off stress from work, Thus, some folks in Singapore run at night, even if they go home late and tired from an overtime. I read somewhere how some of them jog even at midnight. Ask your medical doctor about this first.

I've jogged in the morning, afternoon and evening. It all worked okay for me. My tip is to choose a time when there's less pollution, and that would often be early morning or dawn.

Just remember, regardless of the time you brisk walk or jog, what matters is that you're really having a good time doing it.

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5 Ways to Never Get Tired of Brisk Walking or Jogging

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It can be exciting to start a brisk walk workout program. You have lots of anticipations and expectations. At last, you're going to be healthy and fit! No more bulging pot belly!

But believe me, excitement like that doesn't last. Time will come when burnout happens. There will be times of laziness, and if you don't know how to handle them, you'd stop for good. Many times I've seen how folks young and old start out a jogging routine early in the morning during summer only to stop it after summer's over.

Those are useless workouts. In order for workouts to work, you should do them for life.

So here are 5 ways to never get tired of brisk walking (or jogging), especially when burnout starts to kick in.

1. Always read books (or e-books) or watch videos about brisk walking or jogging, especially by people who do them regularly and have obviously benefited from them. You see it in how they look. You need constant inspiration. This blog, Walk with Choy, can be one.

Here are my actual secrets on how I keep fit and how I keep up. Click here.

2. Look for walking or jogging buddies. Do your workouts with them. Better yet, do it with your spouse. It's more encouraging to do something in groups than being alone, although we need time to do things alone as well. I befriend joggers I see around and look forward to meeting them each morning and chat a bit with them. A sense of camaraderie always helps.

3. Change walking shoes every 6 months or every year. If you can afford it, reward yourself with gifts and a new pair of running shoes is one of them. I love new running shoes and they inspire me a lot to hit the road regularly. The same with jogging outfits and accessories. It's more exciting to jog or brisk walk with a new outfit or gear.

4. Change routes. It greatly helps to change routes regularly. Try this jogging path for three days. Then try another route. Try brisk walking in new and safe territory where you see new landscapes, neighborhoods and other scenery. Jogging or walking becomes an adventure then.

5. Walk with God. Make it a date with him. I often jog leisurely and talk with God along the way. It's a kind of quiet time I enjoy so much.

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Something Diabetics and Hypertensives Should Know about Climbing Up and Down Stairs

From Livestrong Website

A study presented at the American Heart Association showed how walking downhill (going down stairs, for instance) improved blood sugar levels. While walking up stairs improved fat levels in blood.

Thus, if you go up and down stairs, there is a huge chance you may normalize your lipid and glucose levels in your blood.

Well, the study was done on the mountains of Austria, but it also said you don't need to do this in the mountains or hills. Just look for uphill streets or stairs and it would work as effective. God blessed my neighborhood with uphill streets so this is easy for me. It may be the reason why I always have normal blood sugar and blood lipd readings, especially triglyceride. Thank God!

But I also climb up strairs. If you want something more strenuous, try climbing up and down stairs. I tried this at SM North, Walter Mart and even at the Philippine Heart Center along East Avenue---in case a heart problem suddenly occured, hehehe. Just kidding.

Make sure your doctor gives you a go signal before doing this. Look for a building near your place and ask the owner if you could just drop by everyday to climb up and down its stairs. Then do the exercise. Or, go to the nearest mall. Better if you have a street in your vicinity that goes uphill.

The study showed that walking downhill improved the subjects' glucose tolerance by 8.2 percent. Uphill walking improved it by only 4.5 percent. However, uphill walking, according to the study, lowered the triglyceride levels of the subjects by 11 percent. But they only had a 6.8 percent improvement when they walked downhill.

How did the researches explain this? They thought it had to do with using more concentric muscle power when going uphill and more eccentric power when going downhill. Obviously, more studies need to be done to establish the internal processes behind it. 

To be sure, climbing up and down stairs is healthy (but make sure your heart physician approves of it).

You don't need a high stairs to do this. A two-level building would do. A stairs with 13 to 15 steps ought to do it for beginners. The stairs at Walter Mart in Munoz has about 20. The ones at SM North and Heart Center have more.

Do it slowly at first---sometimes, even really slow. No need to hurry up. Then, as you build more power and heart and lung strength (after probably a week or so), do it a bit faster. 

Doing it on footbridges should be ideal but the problem is pollution from traffic. So I'd rather do it in malls or in subdivisions with plenty of trees, like our place.

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Why You Should Have Jogging "Classmates"

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You should have jogging or brisk walking "classmates." That's what I call them. They also brisk walk or jog regularly in the morning or afternoon around our place and, the first time around, I often met them in the streets---just plain met them.

Later I met them eye to eye and much later with a smile. Then one time I stopped to say "Hi!" and that strengthened the familiarity among us. And then I asked them their names. One guy was named, Benjie," the other was "Paul," the guy with the big dog was also named "Paul" and another who looked Chinese was "Rex."

And so on.

I would meet them on the road and say "Hi!" and talk to them for a while and then go on my way. You got to have classmates like that whose help you might need someday if you meet some trouble on the street. Who knows, you might trip or stumble and injure yourself and need a helping hand. That's where your "classmates" come in.

They sometimes walk together in a group, chatting happily as they brisk walk. That's exciting, but I prefer jogging alone. I've always been a loner. And anyway, I am more able to focus on my workout when doing it alone. But I do socialize with them. In fact, I can easily make them laugh. But I try not to be too close to them. I want to focus on my run.

Another reason is, group jogs or runs entice you to compete against each other. You try to jog faster than the rest. Sometimes I want to keep up a gradual pace, hopping high and wide, especially uphill. This way I get the most of my jog. Others might find me too slow.

Or, it may be the other way around. I might suddenly break into a sprint and leave them behind and think I'm showing off.

Nonetheless, it's important to befriend other joggers---young and old. It's more fun and challenging to belong to a community than to be lone ranger all the way. I find great delight just smiling at new joggers and brisk walkers in the area, saying hello or good morning. It's great laughing with veteran joggers.

There was this man in his wheel chair who looked depressed while watching joggers pass by. When I passed him by, I smiled and said, "Good morning" enthusiastically. He was elated and smiled and returned my greeting jovially, looking like he was energized a bit. You can do that service while running outdoors.

That's why it's great to have jogging classmates.

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