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Active Adult Living Del Webb Communities

5 Reason to Take a Day Trip

Active Adult Communities offer all kinds of travel opportunities for their residents and the Day Trip is one of the most popular activities.

One of the 80 clubs we have at our Active Adult Community is the Day Trippers Club, which has 701 members. The club description reads

“Day Trippers take a different trip each month. We are limited to excursions that can be completed within one day. We go to places within a 150 mile radius from the Village”.

Day Tour

The club dues are only $5 per year but there is a fee for each day trip you sign up for.  They usually charter a nice tour bus that seats like 50 people and two experienced club volunteers escorting the group and the professional driver on the trip.

I took the top photo of the inside of the bus when I was recently taking the day trip to Cherokee Casino in NC. The fee was $30 and I was traveler number 50 on a full bus. We boarded the bus in our parking lot at 8:30AM and headed out for our day trip to Cherokee NC which is about 122 miles North of our community. We passed through scenic North Georgia taking a restroom and coffee stop about half way to stretch our legs. I sat with a gentleman whose wife didn’t want to come on this trip either and we had the best time talking with each other. We ended up spending the day with each other, gaming together and having lunch. We left Cherokee about 3pm and stopped at Jaemor Farms on the way back. At Jaemor I bought a fresh peach tart and bags of tomatoes and peaches. We were back in our parking lot before 6:30pm. It was an enjoyable day.

Days trips I have taken here and other places are to the Tellus Science Museum, Atlanta City and History tour, visit to historic Oakland Cemetary, North Georgia winery tour. Others tours include the popular tour coming up in December to hear the Atlanta Sympothy at the Fox Thretre and lunch at a nice restaurant.  Mary Ann is going with a friend to see Cirque Du Soleil Lizia at Atlantic Station. All days trips I have been on have an opportunity for a nice lunch, which you will pay for yourself.
socializing

5 Reasons To Take A Day Trip

  1. Exciting thing to do for the day.
  2. Meet new people you travel with.
  3. Relatively inexpensive.
  4. Short, not too tiring.
  5. Get to come home to sleep in your own bed

Days trips are another reason to consider living in an 55+ Active Adult Community.

 

Categories
Active Adult Living

Fitness Walking For Active Adults

Walking is the one of the best exercises for most 55+ active adults and the most popular. Fitness walking is when you take casual walking one step further and develop a purposeful walking plan to walk faster, farther and more frequent.

You will reap more benefits in the same time spent with fitness walking. Assuming you already walk sometimes and want to take the next step, how do you develop your fitness walking program?

How to Develop a Fitness Walking Program

  1. Decide when you will be walking and schedule a time to walk at least 3 times a week. Many people like to walk every other day, so Monday, Wednesday and Friday are options. Walking in the morning is great for many because they know they will get it done, rather than trying to work walking in later in the day.  You may be walking 5 or 6 times a week before you know it.
  2. Start walking slow and build up your speed and distance over time. Maybe start with two or three miles. I like to walk for an hour a day.
  3. Vary your routine, walking harder some days and easier other days. Within the same workout, using interval training to go faster for a ways, then slower, then faster, etc. is a good practice.
  4. Get a walking buddy or join a walking group. Remember  you are doing fitness walking, not just a casual social walk.
  5. Attend some local walking events. Many if not all running events now are open to walking. They even changed the names to run/walk.  Ask your local running shoe store or better yet check active.com and search “walking” and your location.

Why I Like Walking Events

  1. Helps get you motivated. Takes you to the next level.
  2. Challenging
  3. Competition with yourself and others in your age bracket.
  4. Helps you gauge your progress
  5. Feels great!

Many people like to walk close to home and residents of active adult communities have plenty of places to walk with sidewalks, parkways, LifePaths, and parks nearby. Parks are a nice place to walk. Check with your local senior center also as they may have a walking group. They will have an annual senior games with walking events too.

Consider your Walking Form – Walking Technique

Turning your normal walk into a fitness stride requires good posture and purposeful movements. Be mindful of how you are walking and use these walking techniques to build your fitness walking form

TIPS FOR FITNESS WALKING FORM

  1. USE GOOD POSTURE. Walk tall, Keep your chest raised, and shoulders relaxed – shoulders down, back and relaxed. Your neck, shoulders and back are relaxed, not stiffly upright
  2. HEAD LEVEL look forward (not at the ground), gazing about 20 feet ahead. Your chin should be level and your head up.
  3. BEND YOUR ARMS in slightly less than a 90 degree angle. Cup your hands gently. Swing arms front to back. Do not swing side to side – arms should not cross your body. Do not swing elbows higher than your sternum (breast bone). Swing your arms faster and your feet will follow.
  4. SHORT FASTER STEPS
  5. LAND ON YOUR HEELS
  6. ROLL THRU AND PUSH OFF. Push off with your toes. Concentrate on landing on your heel, rolling through the step and pushing off with your toes. Use the natural spring of your calf muscles to propel you forward. You’re walking smoothly, rolling your foot from heel to toe.

WALKING DON’TS – COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY WALKERS

  1. Do not over stride especially in front.
  2. Do not use too vigorous arm movements.
  3. Do not look at the ground. Keep that head up.
  4. Do not hunch your shoulders
  5. Do not carry hand weights or place weights on your ankles

Fitness walking is a fun activity as well as a great exercise that you can do for the rest of your life. Make the commitment and form the habit. You will be glad you did.

Robert Fowler,  Racewalker

Racewalking is a type of fitness walking that I practice and like a lot. Here is Ian Whatley giving the basic of how to race walk.