I decided to go to the beach today. I don’t have a whole lot of confidence with my body just yet because I’ve been out to lose some weight. Nevertheless I decided to go just to get out of the house. The reason I am telling you all this is because I ended up walking around for about 45 minutes going from my car and looking around at all the shops at Hermosa Beach, CA. So what… well, I checked my heart rate and it was up at about 133 beats per minute versus the standard 80 – I was getting a WORKOUT!

You can also get a workout just by walking around. Now… before you say anything, I walked up and down hills and at an increased pace than most people.  I walk fast, thats just how I walk. With this in mind, if you ever wanted to get a workout, believe it or not it only takes 20 minutes of elevated heart rate to get your body a workout. If you’re out to lose some weight (especially to get fit for the summer beach season) you will want to walk around fast for about 45-60 minutes. Although heart rate necessary to produce a workout changes for various age groups, you couldn’t go wrong raising it by 40 from your regular pace. Of course my body is different from everyone else and you should really see your doctor before you do anything I mention above. As far as I know fast walking hasn’t hurt anyone unless you have some sort of a condition.

Point being, you don’t need to lift weights to get fit! In fact, lifting weights is not necessary at all! If you are out to gain muscle then by all means lifting is a necessity but if you’re just out to lose some pounds especially that annoying belly fat then you should consider doing some cardio. Running, jogging, fast-paced walking, jump rope, swimming, biking, playing sports are just some of the activities you can do.  Multiply your regular workout by 5 times (5 days a week) and you are sure to see some results, believe me! I will be listing some more information on target heart rate (THR) for individual groups later. Most of this information is available over the internet through some simple searching around.

Who said exercise had to be boring? Go to the beach, stroll along the shoreline, play some volleyball – the options are limitless as long as your heart rate is elevated for at least 20 minutes without any breaks or interruptions. Combine your fun activities with proper nutrition and look no further for awesome results.