A new fitness phenomenon called ‘Mall Walking’ comes to town. Popular in most American cities, mall walking is simply as the name suggests, using your neighborhood mall as a place to exercise. You can walk or even jog in the corridors of the malls. Most participating malls open their doors early for walkers even before the shops open their doors to shoppers.
What are the benefits of mall walking?
• You can walk in any weather: With mall walking, you can never have the heat, rain, snow or the wind as an excuse for not exercising. Since the temperatures in malls are controlled, you have a perfect climate all year through.
• Safety: Since you are walking inside the mall, you don’t have to worry about getting mugged, teased or even hit by traffic.
• Clean and pollution free environment: You don’t have to jump over puddles, or try to avoid stepping on dog poop or worry about your allergies acting up due to pollution!
• No cost: The malls won’t charge you for walking-so that means you won’t be paying a hefty membership or monthly charges.
How to get started?
• As for any exercise routine, ask your doctor or health care provider if you are fit for walking.
• Invest in some comfortable workout clothes-even though it’s the hippest mall around, you can’t be exercising in your skinny jeans.
• Put on your walking/exercise shoes-again stilettoes are a strict no-no for exercising.
• Start with 10-15 minutes of walking at a pace that you are comfortable and then after a couple of days increase the pace and the duration.
• Get a walking buddy (or partner) to keep you both motivated.
What are the disadvantages?
• It could be heavy on your pocket-the main reasons why mall owners are happy about letting you use the mall! Walking by the displays in the shops could make your wallet lighter even if you aren’t a shopaholic!
• If you get tempted by the aromas from the food court, you could be getting in more calories than you burnt! The solution to this would be to walk without your wallet or just get minimum cash (just in case of emergencies).
• Since you aren't paying for it-getting motivated to exercise may be a challenge(money after all,is a great motivator and everyone wants to get his/her money's worth).
Keep in mind that the walking surface is hard,so make sure you are wearing good shock absorbing shoes to protect your joints.
So come summer, monsoon, winter, don’t let the weather bother you too much-just slip on your walking shoes and go ‘mall walking’.
Q) Have you ever tried 'mall walking'? Tell us about it.
Online diet consultation and Indian diets for weight loss,Healthy recipes and nutrition articles BY INDIAN DIETITIAN: Sweta Uchil-Purohit (www.myindiandietitian.com)
5 comments:
i often walk in the mall when its really hot
Good. But not possible in Indian scenario. Totally crowded and hardly any place in the corridors.
Swarupa Kakani
I've actually never tried mall walking, but I do know a lot of people who do this where I work! I work in a giant supermarket, and there are a few people who come in every day to get "sun-free" exercise :) The only problem is that there are samples everywhere and I often see them sampling while they "walk". Kind of defeating the purpose!
Mall walking is another type f walking exercise which has the best of both worlds. You are able to see different kinds of products that are for sale and you are exercising. It is proven that walking can add 5 minutes to your life. :)
I've never tried mall walking before, but it's a great idea!
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