Preparation is key as they say and that couldn’t be more true than the winners of the Olhao 2011 event. Just like any sport, the body must be conditioned over a period of time before one can participate in a competitive event.

So what if your looking to start racewalking, what are the procedures before you go off and walk as fast as you can?

• Start off each session with a warm up exercise. It should last 20 minutes and should cover your legs, torso and arm. This should get heartbeat going and plenty of blood and oxygen flowing through your system.
• Stretch your muscles for 10 minutes: Stretch all major muscle, starting from the neck to your legs for 10 minutes. Be careful to not stretch cold muscles as you may damage them.
• A top off warm up exercise. This is very similar to the initial exercise except this time it will last 15 minutes. The first 10 minutes are the same as before but slightly more vigorous and the last 5 minutes are dedicated to a slow decline where you purposely cool down.

And that’s it! All your major muscle components are ready and primed for a racewalk. Just remember that when  you racewalk, you will not achieve speeds of a runner and thus won’t get the same air cooling affect. As it is drastically reduced, it is recommended that you bring plenty of water to cool you down.

Fast walking is a somewhat unknown activity and so are the benefits. It surprises me almost on a daily basis that many people do not realize that if turned into a routine can be just as beneficial as a weekend jog (if time is taken into consideration). The most obvious benefit is that it is a fantastic activity for those who want to preserve their joints while enjoying the environment/scenery around them- for free! Here are a few more reasons why disbelievers should take up the activity:

1. Multiple health benefits: It improves your stamina, endurance as well as your muscles.
2. Lower blood pressure: Most practitioners of fast walking develop it into a daily routine as they fast walk to there destinations. It is a well known fact that regular exercise lowers blood pressure as your heart is used to constantly pumping a larger amount of blood throughout your body. The benefits of a lower blood pressure are immense, it can help your energy levels all the way up to an improved mental capacity.
3. Weight loss: Fast walking is a fantastic fat burner as it uses most of your body muscles, from your legs to your arms. Many newspaper publications have published articles about fast walking reducing fat by as much as 20%
4. Its free & social: That’s right folks, a fast walk by the beach with someone is usually considered a luxury by many but for fast walking practitioners, it’s a way of life!

So you see, fast walking is the equivalent of eating while dieting- It does you good while improving your health. With that in mind, my last piece of advice is to plan ahead so that you can enjoy fast walking as the more you enjoy it, the less it becomes a routine like so many other exercises.

Fast walking is an attractive way of keeping fit when you take your bones and ligaments into consideration. It is a known fact that jogging does indeed erode your knee joints depending on how fast you run. Hence the main benefit of fast walking is the ability to keep fit while maintaining your knee joints. This is especially true if you are over the age of 50 as jogging may be a bit too much for you. The main disadvantage of fast walking is that it takes more time to use the same amount of energy as jogging.

When fast walking, consider 2 things:

1. The distance you plan to walk.
2. The time it takes you to reach that distance.

When you fast walk, try to take a scenic route so that you can enjoy the walk itself. After all, if your going to spend more time than a jogger, you might as well enjoy it. The distance you walk and the time it takes will give you an idea of your speed or otherwise known as “Gait Speed”. There have been studies conducted by many institutions that reveals that a gait speed of 1.4 meters per second can increase your life expectancy by another 10 years!

Bear in mind that the faster you walk, the more likely you will strain your joints. So listen to your body as you walk and most importantly, enjoy it!

Wooohooo! We’re up! So what’s this blog about? Well Olhao is named after the famous European race walk in Portugal and will celebrate the runners who ran that event. While that event may be over, we will cover Olhao events in the future while blog about events in Europe and of course, in the online World. Stay tuned and for now a picture of Olhao 2011. Enjoy!