Walking

Even the busiest of people can find time to use walking as a workout. It requires no special equipment other than comfortable clothes and sneakers and can be done anytime you have some spare minutes. In as little as 30 minutes a day, you can use walking to improve your health, burn fat and increase your metabolism.

Of course, walking works best when you can spare a little more than a half hour a day. Even a moderate pace for 45 minutes to 1 hour per day can do not only the things already mentioned, but reduce your risk for many types of diseases. The risk and occurrence of heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, stroke, angina and diabetes can all be lessened significantly by just one hour per day of walking at a moderate pace.

Like any type of exercise, you should start off slowly. It is OK to only do 20-30 minutes at a slower pace, though you must do it fast enough to increase your heart rate. A leisurely stroll is better than doing nothing, but it won't help your health that much. You must increase your heart rate in order to get any cardiovascular or fat-burning effect from it.

Though a good supportive pair of sneakers with shock absorbers is all that is really needed, some people like to use a gadget called a pedometer. A pedometer is very inexpensive and can actually be quite fun to use. It calculates the amount of steps you take and based on this you can see how far you went in miles and calculate how many calories you burned during your workout. This and a whole lot of water to replenish yourself should make this type of workout a great, low-impact success for you.