The 50Plus Fitness Walker - March 2009

Greetings <> You’ve received this email because you've subscribed to The 50 Plus Fitness-Walker newsletter delivered periodically from 50Plus Fitness Walking. Our goal is to deliver informative, fun and appealing walking features, interesting excecise, news of fun events, contests we are running, other tips and updates on recent additions to our website. All chosen and written specifically just for us 'more seasoned' types who are on the 'golden' side of 50. Enjoy!

Feature

Focus on and develop a good program to help you develop the following:

• Cardiorespiratory endurance
• Muscular strength
• Muscular endurance
• Flexibility
• Body Composition

Remember too that the basic principles of exercise include:

• Exercise on a regular basis.
• Progression in your program.
• Balancing your exercise program so that you include all 5 components of physical fitness
• Add variety into your program.
• Gear your specific activity goal with your exercise program.
• Allow your body time out to recover after you’ve had a hard day of training with an easier day or even a rest day.

Let’s get limbered up with some exercises today.

First, visit our stretching exercise page to get started. If it's better for you, start with chair exercises first. Work on your foot pain, sore muscle or your achy back - especially if you have taken a long winter time-out! These can help you develop better core muscles and help you get out of your winter slump a lot quicker.

Of course once you're warmed up you can get back into our fitness walking programs. If it's been a real winter slump you might even want to start at Level 1 again!

Are you ready for this? We sure hope so. Your spring can be a lot more fun this way!

Do you want to get ready to join the crowd for some walking challenges this summer? Perhaps you might be interested in joining a local club or group. Go for it. Maybe you're interested in walks out of your area or in a fund raising event. Why not work on getting ready for that this month because ...

... in our next issue we'll give you some interesting ideas and great leads on different places to walk. There will also be leads to some great events you can participate in too. In the meantime, it’s a great idea to get going now with your body tune-up and get ready for what’s to come.

Great Idea

We speak often of the many benefits we all receive through the simple act of walking. It's truly amazing. The process is simple, and we have only a couple of very important things to consider. Those things you put on your feet! Yes we are talking about good fitting walking shoes!

Without proper footwear our walks become a chore instead of play. And we are all about having fun and playing!

Here's a really quick overview (we encourage you to follow these links for full info - there's over a dozen pages of detailed information on the site to help you). So what types of shoes will work for you? You need to know what type of walking you'll be doing.

There's shoes for everyday walking, shoes for trail walking, shoes for all terrain walking... Well you get the idea. The list goes on. For example we wear weatherproof boots during winter and spring, when it isn’t always fair weather. In the drier season, we're more likely to wear lighter footwear with better ventilation and cooling.

Once you establish the right type of shoes, you need to fit your shoes properly. Do you know that over 70% of people wear shoes that are not fitted properly? That's just insane.

And finally of course comes actually picking just the right shoes for you. We've always been unapologetic fans of top quality footwear. They are better designed, better constructed, better engineered, longer lasting, healthier for your feet and provide the greatest value over time. On top of all that they feel great and we feel great when we wear them! We deserve it and you do too!.

We'll be adding links to some more recommended shoe brands in the near future too. In the meantime you're most welcome to email us for suggestions for you. Tell us a bit about your walking needs and yourself. We'll help you in every way we can.

Tip Of The Month

Don’t just work on getting your body ready for some good walking challenges. Pay attention also to the most important part ....your foot! You only get what you were born with. Please look after them. They really deserve it!

Here's some basic foot care tips for you. Your feet will love you for it.

• Wash you feet daily. Make sure you get between your toes.
• Keep your toe mails trimmed. Trim them straight across and not too short. Do them right after bathing or washing your feet. The nails are softer and a lot easier to trim.
• If you have dry skin, use moisturizing lotion to help.
• Inspect your feet regularly. If you need to dissolve corns or calluses, see your doctor for proper treatment.
• Wear proper fitting shoes to avoid blisters.
• Wear clean socks. It's healthier and more comfortable for your feet.

We'll talk more about planning a foot care program especially for you in the next issue. Stay tuned!

Your walking partners,

Yoko and Geoff

PS - Hmmm. Maybe you’ve gotten a little fuzzy on why walking is so gosh darn good for you? Drop by our Benefits of Walking page again!

PPS - Remember that we welcome your walking stories, hiking tales and tall tales too! Share yours with us, be published on your very own web page and maybe even win some neat prizes!

PPS - Feel free to pass a copy of this newsletter on to your friends, They might enjoy it too!