College Jolt

Your college years are best spent busy. So where does that leave room for keeping up with your personal fitness? It’s hard work staying healthy with all of the unlimited junk food, parties, and lazy weekends that the college experience provides. That’s why in my series, Shape U, we’re gearing up for a semester of fitness 101, featuring tips and tricks to maintaining your shape this season.

I’m no runner. But my experience with exercise and fitness in general has taught me that cardio-vascular health is important. No matter how much weight you lift in the gym, if you don’t get your blood pumping with a little cardio now and again, you’ll be wheezing at any long-distance foot race. So, what’s one of the simplest ways to boost your heart health without killing yourself with sprints off the bat? Power walking.

Now, don’t be stressed about the term. Guys, power walking doesn’t denote some 1980’s fad suggesting the use of sweatbands and neon short-shorts. And ladies, no, it isn’t anything frantic or flailing. In fact, power walks care like any other daily walk you might take around campus, maybe just a little faster. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your power walk has to be too rushed, but you should keep a good, challenging pace, as if trying to get somewhere quickly. That’s all they mean by the “power” in power walking.

*

When I was quite younger, my dad taught me about fitness by granting me privileged use of his exercise equipment, and inviting me on walks, beach runs, and trips to the gym. But most of all, he and I got into a social routine of talking over a brisk, nightly walk, that we promised we’d do together every day. 2.5 miles total, there and back—ending at that certain crack in the sidewalk, to the left of the skinny tree. And for a whole year we stuck to it

At first he really had to urge me to keep up with him. I was by no means in marathon shape, so I got cramps easily and let myself lag behind my quick-footed dad. He isn’t the type to slow down out of sympathy, either. He wanted the full workout experience, too. So he coached me to pick up the pace, but if I couldn’t, I’d finish the route slow and alone.

*

To get started on your power walking program, I highly suggest getting yourself a partner. Your boyfriend, best friend, roommate, or anyone, can act as a motivator, but more importantly, someone to whom you are obligated. As I’ve mentioned before, being obligated to meet up with a friend for a run or at the gym is an excellent way to get into, and stick with, a consistent schedule.

Another thing you should accomplish during prep is setting a route, or an established length you’d like to run, or both. For instance, my dad and I would always run together to a certain mark, then reverse, and take the same way home. Before we even established this path, we drove its length in the car, using the measures on the dashboard to approximate the distance. Alternatively, you could use Google to find the on-foot distance of several favorite routes, or go to a site like mapmyrun.com, which provides a community listing of your neighbors’ favorite local walking and running routes.

Oh, and don’t sell yourself short with a dinky quarter-mile schlep around the block. Challenge yourself, and settle on a nice scenic path that you can endure for at least a mile, or two, or more.

*

Even though it seemed like every day I’d get a cramp, or have to stay a step or two behind, I did notice that I was finishing the power walk within feet of my dad’s heels, at least. I started to get less cramps, and breathed less hard, and started to enjoy my own progress—not to mention the conversation that I’d forfeited to wheezing. Okay, it wasn’t all that dramatic, but the bottom line is, it became fun. It only took maybe a month to unlock my potential, and forget the intense pulsing I’d feel in my legs from the almost-running pace we kept together.

From then on, the walking was somewhat of a duty. Our walks sometimes featured small talk about school, but many times we discussed fitness together, proud of the fact that we’d turned my disinterest into an accomplished sense of self-worth. Once, we set out even though a hurricane brewed off the coast; we couldn’t break the streak for even that. More times still it rained on our Florida neighborhood. My mom would find us a few streets over, yelling over the sound of the storm out her streaming car window, “Do you need a ride home?” Both of us would shake our heads and finish the 2.5 miles. I could feel in my toning muscles that power walking was good for my body, and it made me feel less sluggish in the evenings. I couldn’t stop just for rain, or anything else.

*

Whether you prefer your power walks alone or with a partner, the question still remains: how can I keep myself on pace? As walkers get farther into their mile count, movements become harder on tiring muscles, which will naturally slow one’s pace during a walk. To combat this, I like to keep myself on-beat with some fast-paced music. I assemble a playlist for my music player beforehand, which includes songs with a consistent, high-energy beat to slap the sidewalk to; my favorite songs not only keep me pumped-up along the way, but encourage a rhythm that I can’t accidentally deviate from.

A few other tricks that successful power walkers employ include the use of resistance to super-charge walking workouts. Try carrying hand weights and pumping your arms opposite your legs. You could achieve the same effect with a couple of water bottles, or strap-on weights for wrist attachment.

Also, don’t forget to breathe fully and avoid rigid, unsafe movements, which often come from locked knees, or extensive strides that may stretch muscles too far. To avoid injury, simply stretch out your arms, hips, legs, ankles, neck (and more!) before you take off. Trust me, it feels good, and keeping yourself limber will make it easier to make comfortable movements.

*

It had been more than a few months, and my dad and I were still at it. By this time I was just as good as he was at setting the pace, and keeping ourselves in check at every curve in the sidewalk. Sometimes we went beyond the crack in the concrete, and continued for the stop sign that meant we’d clock almost 3 miles by the time we got back home. My dad’s stopwatch was the best way to tell if we’d beat our best time. We used to break a lot of records.

One day, as we turned off of our street onto the roadside sidewalk at our route’s beginning, he asked if I wanted to jog part of the way. It was fair to say I was intimidated by running, especially since my dad was already good at it. Was I going to have to start all over, with the wheezing, and the cramps, and the falling behind? I thought. But I wanted to try, so we took off at a jogger’s pace, moving just as we had before, except our feet flew higher, faster. My dad told me to stop whenever I didn’t think I could anymore.

That day I ran all the way to our half-way tree. We turned and walked a little in the homeward direction before I challenged him to a run the rest of the way home. I couldn’t believe that without having run at all in the past few months, I was able to keep up with a sudden, quick jog. All it took was the daily challenge on my heart for me to attempt more than I thought I could have at the time.

It felt good. It was real, and I didn’t have to threaten my body with rigorous running from the start. I just gave myself a boost with a go-get-it attitude and my daily power walking promise; even a full-blown downpour can’t damper my determinations now.