Walking is one of the excellent total-body workouts. Essentially, walking has similar benefits to running. Walking is vital for strengthening your bones and muscles. It is also important for maintaining your weight. Walking stimulates the burning of body calories. Regular walking exercises help to prevent cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure. Additionally, walking stimulates the production of endorphins, which are the feel-good hormones.
Walking will help a great deal to tone your feet and leg muscles. Incorporating a few movements and exercises into your walking motion will also tone your biceps and triceps. If you need to have more defined arm muscles, walking activities will come in handy. Below are helpful ways to work your biceps and triceps when going on a walk.
1. Tone Your Arms While Walking
Walking is quite an essential exercise. Moreover, everyone has a different walking style. You may walk with your hands in your pockets or with the arms swinging at the sides. You could also walk with your arms by your sides.
However, toning your arms while walking calls for more keenness, particularly on the arm position and motion. For proper arm toning, don’t just put your arms by your sides. It’s best if you position the arms 45 to 90 degrees from your midsection. While walking, make sure to put one arm forward while the other remains behind. Then, establish a proper rhythm so that your arms and legs work together. Subsequently, your arms will remain active as you walk, resulting in well-toned arms.
2. Resistance Bands
Resistance bands are versatile, especially when you don’t want to carry heavy exercising equipment. Trainers recommend resistance bands to exercise the triceps while walking.
Wrap one end of the band on your left hand and the other on your right. Then, move the band over your head behind your back. Rest your left arm. Raise your right arm and bend your elbow so that you touch the back of your right shoulder. Lift your right arm again, and return to this position. After about three sets, switch arms to work out the left arm.
3. Light Dumbbells
With light dumbbells, you can incorporate bicep and tricep workouts while walking. Such exercises include shoulder presses, overhead tricep presses, and bicep workloads. Holding an extra weight in your arms improves the workload on your upper body.
Begin with a one-pound dumbbell on each arm. Keep your arms close to the body and swing them as you walk. It would help if you swung your arms naturally. Swinging the arms quickly increases the risk of injury on your arm joints. However, doctors don’t recommend walking with weights for people with cardiovascular and joint issues.
4. Bodyweight Exercises on a Bench
As you walk, you’re likely to come across several benches. These benches are great tools for bodyweight exercises.
Whenever you come across a bench, you can do pushups on the seat rest or backrest. For a proper pushup, ensure your body is in a straight line. Place your hands wider than the width of your shoulders, and press down. Once your body comes close to the bench, press back up. You could also use the seat rest for tricep dips.