Power Walk for Energy | 10-Minute Walk 4 of 4 | 72

This is the final walk in our 4 part walking series. We’re finishing strong with a 10 minute power walk. 

A power walk is a brisk walk with purpose: faster than a casual stroll, slower than a run, and a great way to boost your heart rate without beating up your joints.

This guided walking workout combines movement, music, and a story so time flies while you get in some low impact cardio. Walk outside or at home on a treadmill or walking pad.

You get:

• A beginner friendly power walk workout
• About 10 minutes of movement and 1300 steps
• A brisk, low impact cardio boost

My ADHD also brings things like:

• Why a purple bike should have been a warning sign
• Cycling in Solvang, California, and the bakery adventures
• Whether the five second rule applies to peanut M&Ms on the road
• The Monty Python song I can't get enough of

This episode ha background walking music, breathing reminders for energy (oxygen, baby), a fast-ish walking pace, and a bell at the halfway point. 

Along the way we talk about staying in motion when things go sideways, doing different types of walks, and how three 10 minute walks add up to a good 30 minutes in day. Exercise snacks, as I like to say.

If you’re looking for a 10 minute power walk workout, a podcast to walk to, or an easy way to fit more movement into a busy day, lace up and come for a walk. 

Don’t forget to tap Follow so your next walk is waiting for you.

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Walking & Talking with Helen
Connect: @yourwalkingpodcast

Transcript

0:03

The chain on my bike kept falling off, and everyone in my group rode ahead, and I was left standing there alone with grease on my hands, wondering what to do. I'm not a bike mechanic. I put the chain back on, flipped the bike back over, clipped into the pedals, and rode like a bat out of hell to catch up with my group. The Purple People Eater of a bike was not going to win. Not today, bike. Not today. This is the last walk in the short series to get you moving. It's week four, and it's a power walk. You can do this walk outside or inside on a treadmill or walking pad, or even marching in place, as long as you're moving. You're going to start at an easy warm-up pace. There'll be a bell at the halfway point in case you want to turn around, and of course I'll tell you my ridiculous stories along the way. Always with the stories, that one. A power walk is faster than a casual walk, but not bullet- train speed. Your arms are moving. Legs are moving. You're walking with purpose. Stand tall. Relax your shoulders. And let your arms help you. When the chain kept falling off, I was frustrated and crabby and probably a little bit scared. Shh! But also super stubborn because I'm half Norwegian, half Irish. And that tells you everything you need to know about me. I didn't want to give up. Didn't want to get in the SAG wagon across the finish line. That's the wagon where they pick up cyclists with issues along the way. So I kept going. Fixed the chain each time it fell off. Shifted into a harder gear. And each pedal stroke, I used my thighs to push faster and faster and faster, trying to catch up. And speaking of faster, pick up a little bit of pace now. Pretend you're me. Group of friends up ahead of you. Your chain fell off. You fixed it. You're back on your bike. You're trying to catch up, but not sprinting yet because you got a whole ride ahead of you. So I did finish on my own. But at least I finished. And eventually I got smart and got it fixed, so it stopped happening. Shoulders are loose. Arms are swinging easy. Settling into that beat. Not muscling our way through it yet. Stay with that pace. Sometime later I was doing the Solvang Half Century ride in Solvang, California. It's an adorable, cute little Danish village. We did a group bicycle ride. It was 46 miles. Twenty-six hundred feet of climbing and I'm a climber like a goat. Rolling hills, crisp spring air. The scenery is so beautiful, you just forget how hard the ride is and how much your butt hurts. Because trust me, 46 miles, your butt hurts. Okay, now we're going to go faster. Strong, steady pace. Arms are powering you along. And with the Solvang ride, I already knew that back at the finish line there were bakeries with traditional butter cookies, strudels, and kringle, which you can get at Trader Joe's if you have one near you. So I was riding with the instructors from our spinning studio and we were there to push ourselves. It was going to be a good ride, strong ride, probably a power ride like this power walk. And then I saw a student from my spin class. The same bike as mine. Same brand. Yes, same purple color. That should have been a warning to me. She was on the side of the road. Her chain was off and she looked a little discouraged. Gee, I wonder why. The "what am I supposed to do now?" look. So I stopped and helped her put the chain back on and we rode off and then her chain came off again. Surprise! So we stopped again, flipped the bike, re-threaded the chain, got back on the road. Happened again and again, and we just kept going. Stay with that brisk pace. Shoulders are down away from your ears. Follow the music. The beat's going to help you keep that power pace. Keep your steps even. So that Solvang ride ended up being a really good ride. We got to see more scenery and had more conversation and more laughing at the absurdity of this beautiful ride turning into a roadside bike repair session. We didn't let it ruin our ride. We just enjoyed the day, enjoyed the conversation, enjoyed the scenery. Because sometimes the win, you know, is just staying in motion, no matter how we do it. And that's how we did it. Put the chain back on. Put the chain back on. Put the chain back on. We didn't have pressure to keep up and our reward was more peanut M&Ms at the rest stops. Stay with that pace. Near the end of the ride, when there were no more rest stops and I was fading a little bit, I saw some peanut M&Ms on the ground and I thought it was a mirage, a beautiful mirage. And then I wondered, does a five- second rule apply, even though it's more like a 20-minute rule? I didn't eat them. I wanted to. I thought about it, but didn't eat the peanut M&Ms from the ground. Powerful steps. Squeeze those glutes. Keep that oxygen flowing. Stay with me here. Stay with the power. And as you saw with this four- week series, we changed up the different types of walks we did, and it's good to always change things up so your body doesn't get used to the same thing, same thing every day. Some brisk walks, some interval walks, and then you can add in some slower and longer walks. Take some short movement breaks throughout the day. So three 10-minute walks will give you about 30 minutes of movement in a day. And sometimes things get in the way, but find ways to power through. Stay with that pace now, push it. Think of it as you get to walk, you don't have to walk. And today we get to walk, if even only for 10 minutes. It's kind of like that Monty Python song: "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Boo boop..." Just a little bit slower recovery. Not a cooldown yet. As you're walking, take a deep breath in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Roll your shoulders a little bit. Big rolls backward. See if you can walk and roll at the same time. Not rock and roll, but that would be cool if we could rock and roll at the same time. And roll the shoulders forward. We're going to slow it down. If you're dropping off here, I'll see you next time. Otherwise, slow your pace a little bit more. One more deep breath in through your nose. And long, slow exhale. Shake out your hands. Get all that tension out. Relax your jaw. Sometimes we hold tension in our jaws. When you're done, make sure you get a little bit of stretching in if you can. Just at least your calves, maybe the front of your thighs. Drink some water. Slow it down a little more. Check your feet. Make sure your toes aren't gripping the bottom of your shoes. Make sure you're following the podcast. And I'll see you next time.