RippedNerd

Sports and leisure products are a huge, multi-billion dollar business. Just as with other manufacturers and retailers, companies in the sports and leisure market get a massive boost during the festive season. In fact, there is a double bubble effect.

Over the Christmas period, a great many people will be giving sports themed gifts. Fitness footwear – usually the same ones used by much admired sporting heroes is a perennial favorite. Team uniforms and logo festooned sportswear are also gifts that are normally well received. A huge range of sporting items – from crossbows to golf clubs and everything in between – will be wrapped up and placed under the Christmas tree.

A couple of weeks later, as the impact of the festivities on people’s waistlines becomes obvious, weight loss resolutions involving taking more exercise and adopting a healthier lifestyle in general will start to become common. Some of those Christmas gifts will be used in anger for the first time as people set off to parks, running tracks and gyms to shed unwanted pounds and get in shape.

It’s all very laudable of course, and some people will actually keep it up. Many, of course, will fall by the wayside after a token effort. It’s perfectly natural – finding the energy, the motivation and the time to exercise can be difficult. Fitting it around the demands of family life and a job can be difficult.

However, you don’t need to get kitted out in fluorescent Lycra and drag yourself to the gym for an hour or two of huffing and puffing. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on branded fitness gear or shell out for expensive monthly membership fees at the gym. Taking exercise by walking one of the easiest and most effective ways of getting into shape and shedding a few pounds.

It’s also worth noting that the dropout rate for walking is quite a bit lower than for many other forms of exercise – probably because it has such a low injury risk. It might be easy to assume that, because walking is a low intensity exercise mode, it won’t do you a great deal of good – but that would be a mistaken belief. It takes more or less the same amount of energy to walk a mile as it does to jog it – and there will be a lot less stress on your muscles and joints when you are walking compared to when you are running.

You can slot walking into your schedule as and when it suits you best. If you can set aside half an hour or an hour a day for a nice long walk then that’s great. But if you find it simpler to fit two or three shorter walking sessions into your daily schedule then that’s not a problem. Every little helps – and there’s no shortage of opportunity to build a little extra walking into your daily schedule.

About the only thing that you need to get started on a walking exercise program is a good comfortable pair of shoes. Don’t worry about getting a pair from a big name brand – the important thing is to get shoes that are a comfortable fit. A stout pair of shoes will prove to be a much better use of your money than fancy branded jogging pants, fluorescent vests or any of the other gimmicks which can be so readily found in the weight loss arena.

These days, you can buy walking shoes online and usually get a good deal. If they are not a good fit (or even if you just don’t like them when you see them “in the flesh”), you can normally send them back free of charge and either try a new pair in another size or just ask for your money back.

So, if you want to lose some excess weight following the festivities, remember that when it comes to weight loss exercises, walking is convenient, cheap and very effective.