Workout with Debbie Walker’s Walkvest
My mom, who is 75 and counting, has had osteoporosis for 30 years now. Although I’m younger than she, I work out with her five times a week. We’ve tried many workout methods incorporating weight training since we know that weight training helps prevent bone loss. That’s a plus for osteoporosis sufferers, or for those who want to prevent osteoporosis, like me.
We’ve tried Charlene Prickett (of It Figures), and Strong Bones Yoga (with Christine Dormaier) tapes. We’ve joined gyms and Curves. And we’ve bought stationary bikes and treadmills. In all the years of our exercising together, nothing has matched the challenge and accessibility of Debbie Walker’s Walkvest and WalkOut of the Month Club CD’s.
We ordered two vests from www.walkvest.com (small for my mom and medium for me) and had to wait awhile before receiving them due to their being on backorder. When they arrived, we received with them 8 (each) half-pound weights that are tucked inside pockets that surround the vest’s waist. We also received a beginner’s 20-minute WalkOut CD. According to the enclosed directions, I tucked four weights evenly spaced into my mom’s vest pockets; all eight in mine. This distribution around your body’s core threatens less injury than does holding handweights while walking. Then we worked with the CD on the treadmill (we have two, side by side). Later we tried walking around the block sans CD. That’s it, you just start walking.
The vest is adjustable with two straps, one at your chest, the other at your waist; so it fits comfortably. Making sure the vest is snug is important because otherwise the pull of the vests can cause the neckline to gouge into your neck and hurt a bit.. Where you feel the added weight is not in your neck but in your legs and thighs, mainly, but not too much to cause cramps. With steady guidance from Debbie Walker herself and the beats in the accompanying music, the beginner’s CD helps you warm up slowly, varies your heartrate, builds to intensity, then cools you down. It also uses inclines for treadmills. My mom goes at her own pace, especially at the plateaus, and I go at mine.
The CD’s with the WalkOut of the Month Club that we later received in the mail follow the same format but are longer–around 30-40 minutes–and include a spurt of jogging, if you want to jog. Each month builds on the challenges of the previous month. They arrive regularly once a month; however, we experienced a wait between months two and three without any explanation for this wait. We assume there was a backlog.
Without even trying, I’ve lost ten pounds in the three months we’ve been working out with the Walkvest. And my mom is strong, energetic, and healthy. She’s even wearing the vest around the house, just pottering. She says it helps keep her warm. We haven’t tucked additional weights into our vest pockets because the WalkOut of the Month Club CD’s incrementally increase the challenge, so we don’t feel yet that we’ve reached a plateau in our workouts. But it’s nice to know that we can add weights if we want to do so.
The Walkvest offers aerobic benefits along with the all-important weight training–a great, and effective combination. We’re never bored, we understand what we’re doing, and we like it.
