Hi everyone, welcome to my heart health blog. Today I want to share with you a simple and effective way to improve your heart health and well-being: paced walking.
Paced walking is a form of aerobic exercise, walking at a moderate intensity for a set duration of time. Paced walking may help lower your blood pressure, cholesterol, and resting heart rate, as well as improve your mood, energy, and endurance.
I use Google Fit to track my paced walking sessions. Google Fit is a free app to help you monitor your physical activity and health goals. Google Fit may measure your steps, distance, calories, heart rate, and more when synchronized with other apps. If you are looking for a way to track your heart health and fitness goals, you might want to try synchronizing a heart healthy walk with Heart Rate monitor, Samsung Health with Guava Health. *Metriport app with AI to help improve healthy goal setting used to synchronize the data with these other apps for free 1/29/24 yet is no longer in service. You may also set custom goals and challenges for yourself.
Heart Rate Monitor AI Recommendations
Resting HR: 60–100 bpm (Heart Rate Monitor lower in athletes). Measure after 5 min rest—count pulse 60 s at wrist/neck or use an ECG/wearable.
Training zones: moderate 50–70% max; vigorous 70–85% (max ≈220−age).
See a doctor if resting HR <50 or >100 with symptoms (palpitations, dizziness).
To start my paced walking session, I make sure that I am fully hydrated, rested, and nourished with nutritious food. I also wear comfortable clothes and shoes. I choose a safe and scenic route I enjoy walking on.
I open the Google Fit app on my phone and tap on the "Add activity" button. I select "Paced Walking" as the activity type and set the duration to 30 minutes. I also turn on the "Track workout" option to notify me if I am walking too fast or too slow.
Then I start walking at a steady pace, breathing deeply and rhythmically. I smile and greet other walkers I meet along the way. I find this makes me feel more connected and caring to others.
As I walk, I check the Google Fit app periodically to see how many steps I have taken, how far I have walked, how many calories I have burned. I try to keep my steps around 100 per minute.
After 30 minutes, the Google Fit app notifies me I have completed my workout. Google Fit app shows me a summary of my stats and gives me some feedback and encouragement. Google Fit also syncs with my Google account and updates my progress towards my goals.
I feel happy after my paced walking session. Often I notice my heart rate has lowered significantly from before. For example, on January 29, 2024, my heart rate lowered from 82 bpm to 61 bpm after the workout, a difference of 21 bpm. This difference suggests my heart is working more efficiently and pumping more blood with each beat. On February 1, 2024, my heart rate increased at 30 minutes, yet lowered by 2 beats per minute after another 30 minutes.
I also feel more relaxed, energized, and happy. Paced walking releases endorphins, natural chemicals to make you feel good. Paced Walking also reduces stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline and therefore may reduce anxiety and inflammation.
I hope you enjoyed reading about my paced walking experience and learned new ideas. If you want to try paced walking yourself, you may download the Google Fit app from the Play Store and follow the steps I described above. You may also visit https://myhearthealthblog.blogspot.com/ for more ideas and stories about heart health.
