Author Joyce Shulman joined News 12's Elizabeth Hashagen to discuss the benefits of walking outside, rain or shine, and what tools are needed to step up the exercise a notch.

<div class="block">Author Joyce Shulman joined News 12&#39;s Elizabeth Hashagen to discuss the benefits of walking outside, rain or shine, and what tools are needed to step up the exercise a notch.</div>

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Be Well: Tips on Stepping It Up A Notch When Doing Walking Exercises

So right now, the weather is not cooperating with our outdoor walk, but that is not going to stop us from getting active and really enjoying. Luckily, we have some overhang. So we are covered a little bit. But for anybody else even just going to a place like say a mall. If you have some place near you where yes, you can get, you know, some of that movement in and walking outside, even when the weather isn't great is really good for you. A little bit of rain shouldn't stop people. I'm not made of sugar, although I'm pretty sweet. Right? Let's talk about some of the tools that you have. Um, that will really take this up a notch. So it's about tools that will elevate your walking practice, right? So jetty poles which are the first fitness poles designed for walking. So they weigh a little bit more than trekking poles. They've got feet that will let them pivot really nicely. And these middle grips that let you do some other movements. So let me, let me see. So as you're walking, you can move your hands to the middle grips, you can press overhead, you can fly. You can do side raises and you can even so really get that upper body involved while you're walking, while you're walking. You basically can take a full body workout with you on a walk. Now, if I'm using this, you know, amount of weight, how much, how many more calories or how much more weight am I really lifting? It's really amazing. Right. They don't feel super heavy. They're very light, they're about a pound a piece. So the average person takes 2000 steps per mile. And what that means is for every mile, you're moving £2000 worth of weight, which is like the equivalent of a Volkswagen bug. Wow. I'm strong over time. And what happens? We have taken these into performance labs and because you're activating more of your body, even though it feels easier. People are burning an average of 55.6% more calories on their walk. Ok. So I'm going to start walking and one of the tricks that you did tell me or tips, I guess I should say is that I do want to push down a little bit and I do feel that and engage my core. Yes, exactly. Core your arms. Now you're wearing a backpack and for someone that wants maybe, uh, a more extreme experience, I'm not even sure it's more extreme, but there's a whole trend happening right now, which is so amazing and it's rocking and we have built a backpack that makes wrecking accessible. Ok. So what is rucking? So wrecking in its simplest, which really finds its roots in the military and goes back thousands of years is just walking with a weighted pack. Ok. So you could just get a backpack and throw some books in it. Ok. And walk with that. But a pack that's designed for that, the weight you can see sort of lies more evenly against your back. Yes. Ok. Because you want that weight distribution to be correct and you don't want to end up hurting your back. But what's so interesting is the research shows that not only does this adjust your posture, engage your core, burn more calories all the things. Yeah. For most people it's actually really good for your back. Oh, good. Because it aligns you so nicely and it does activate all of those, like, deep core stabilizer muscles that we ignore most of the time. Right. The crunches don't do it. All right. So, let's go walk it, let's go.