Ultimate walking.

Ultimate walking is free to participate in, can be practiced alone or with friends and requires no specialist tools or equiptment. As long you have a comfy, suitable pair of shoes and relatively loose clothing that you can wear, you can begin doing it for yourself today.

The notion of ultimate walking is a loose derivative of pedestrianism, which used to involve walking for extremely long distances in exceptionally speedy times. Early recorded accounts of these events date back to the early 18th century. Although, many people globally have practised taking walking to great lengths, possibly for thousands of years, it just so happens that they were not documented or at least not pubished documents or widely available ones. 

Any form of physical activity is good for your health, walking is especially good for people who are just introducing themselves to regular exercise or for those who do not wish to participate in anything to strenuous or of high or great impact.

It is always recommended that you warm up your body by stretching before you undertake any workout or participate in any fitness regime, even if it is only walking.

How is it done?
Ultimate walking is based on a three tier training system, that anyone can do.

Speed: This involves seeing how fast you can walk and the aim is to improve the speed you can travel at by foot. It is best to try to stick to the same route, that way it becomes easier to measure your progress and is a fair test for timing. 

Distance: How far you can walk for, this is about measuring and improving your sustained walking. If you are starting out a useful tip is to try not to overstretch yourself to early on, as you will also have to walk the same distance back again!

Continued walking:  This third tier is for testing your stamina and involves walking for a continuation of time at a sustainable pace. It is difficult to quantify this particular activity as you can not measure it accurately by means of time or distance, as you are not setting yourself goals of locations or timed deadlines. However this is the ideal approach for the amateur or less able bodied of individuals.

Similarly all three tiers can be used in conjunction with each other and at the highest of fitness levels, all three can be applied simultaneously.    

A well documented pedestrian.

One man recognised for his walking abilities was Foster Powell, who was branded 'The Astonishing Pedestrian'. Best known for his talent at walking incredibly fast, in 1787 he walked to and from Canterbury to London Bridge, in under 24 hours! He was born in 1734 and died in 1793. He frequently walked from London to York and even at the age of 58 managed this distance in just 5 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes. Truly astonishing.

I wish you all the best of luck in the pursuit of health and fitness.