Walk this way

I have tried all sorts of ways to be fit. I tried martial arts for awhile or as others called it Mark gets beat up every Sunday morning. I tried weight lifting,jogging and joining a gym. All of these ideas are good and may work well for you. I burned out real quick on most of them. Like a lot of fat lazy people I would get hooked on seeing TV ads with beautiful people working out and think “Yep that’s the way to do it” you know NO Pain No Gain!!! well that’s bullshit too. You don’t have to knock yourself out to be fit. You just need to make some changes, OK a lot of changes.


I’m very lucky that I live within a few blocks of Grant’s trail in the South county area of St. Louis(please watch my video below of Grant’s Trail,I know another plug for my music). The trail at this time is 8 miles long and runs right pass Grant’s farm. I started riding my bike at first really pushing myself and riding every inch of it every day back and forth. 16 miles everyday, I would only feel good if I did all of it,if I missed a section of the trail I would be pissed off and consider the day a loss. The day would come where I just did not care,and then it became weeks before I would go out,and then I would just give up. I then hit on the idea of changing how I approach working out and this for me is a big deal. I decided any form of movement was better then nothing. I also found out that any steps I took during the day could be totaled up so a few steps here and there would soon really add up. I would wear pedometer and see how far I walked on any given day. I was at 3 miles with no effort, so I just started adding steps where ever I could. In no time at all I was walking 6 too 8 miles a day. The more I walked the more I wanted to walk.
I used to take my mp3 player with me,but soon I found when I was walking I really loved hearing the birds or just saying hello to folks on the trail. When you out walking alone you have wonderful down time to just think and unwind. Its so nice to let your mind wonder while you walk. As long as the weather is above 65 or so I still get my bike out for a slow 5 mile ride,but over all I prefer to walk. Humans are designed to walk and on occasion we should be able to sprint (never know when a bear is going show up on the trail,well some pretty big rabbits any way and if you have seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail well you know).

So here’s my basic workout: I try and walk as much as I can in a day. I park at the far end of the lot at work, always take the stairs and two at a time. I try and go far a walk on the trail for about 45 minutes or so after dinner. My friend Jay is a photographer and has done a really great job of finding other trails in our area and  on weekends we go for much longer hikes. (much more on these great trails in the future). The other thing I really think works well is using your own body weight for work outs. Push ups,planks and some basic curls with dumb bells. My number one work out goal is to be able to do pull ups and I am not there yet( I did build my pull up bar). I find that every day I feel a little bit stronger and I have more endurance. Its so nice to put on your tight fitting jeans just out of the dryer and they have become baggy. This is not over night,its just a little walk but I do it a lot. If I miss a day or two I no longer freak out about it,I might walk a little further the next time but its all good. You don’t get fit over night but you start to feel better each day as you continue taking the baby steps in the right direction.
Catch up with yah all later, I'm off for a walk.