ShapeWalking : Six Easy Steps to a Healthier Life: Book Review

"Shapewalking : Six Easy Steps to a Healthier Life" bills itself as a starter kit, it has just what a beginner needs to start a walking program, or a seasoned walker to use to structure their walking program for better results. ShapeWalking combines three elements for a total fitness program: fitness walking for the aerobic/heart-healthy component, Resistance-Strength Training with non-latex bands to build muscle, and flexibility stretching to increase your range of motion.

"ShapeWalking" is the kind of book that makes you want to jump right in with their program. Each section is full of "bullets" of information so you can quickly find the things you need to know, and plenty of pictures and diagrams to show you how to do things.

The walking section begins with getting the right shoes and how to dress for walking in your climate. Then a word about exertion and heartrate so you will get your walking to an appropriate aerobic level. The fitness walking technique described is a good one, not legal racewalking (it would become that with keeping the knee straight when in front of the body), but will get fitness walkers up to a good pace with good body alignment. The Fitness Walking Progression Plan then shows how to build your walking time and intensity.

The resistance/strength training and flexibility workouts are presented as Photo Shoots, with good instructions and details illustrated with two photos on each page. These are set up in workouts meant to be done daily on a rotating basis. The anti-osteoporosis workouts should be of special interest to anybody in their middle years as well as seniors.

I like the fact that the gals in the photo shoot are the authors rather than models. They are people I can identify with!

The book has a two-page Fitness Walking Record that would be good to copy for yourself. The Resources for Walkers section lists racewalk and volkssport organizations as well as walking spas - a great vacation idea!