Health Tips for Exercising/Walking in The Capital

One of the good things about Ecuador is that it makes one younger, relatively speaking. And one of the reasons is that exercising is easy to do, perhaps because of an ideal climate. However, there are some things that you can do to maximize the benefits of exercise or even walking.

Avoiding excessive pollution is one of the most important things because according to this study– exercising or even walking in high pollution areas especially for older people makes the positive outcome of exercising useless. So it's basically for nothing, but you can do something about it.

So how can one avoid pollution while exercising or walking outdoors?

Answer: Saturdays and Sundays are the best time especially earlier in the mornings and after 7:00 pm. The buses, a main source of pollution, and other traffic will be much less. On weekdays do the same but for the evening make it after 9:00 pm.

Another way to minimize pollution intake is to exercise/run/walk inside the park. This is ideal especially if it's a big park you will be away from the streets, and that is all it takes for one to get the maximum positive results of exercising.

And of course a gym membership is yet another option, if one can't do something strenuous then just walk on a treadmill. 

Also at times throughout the year we have high ultra violet light, and these rays even if it's cloudy can adversely affect people, especially those exercising around midday, so be cautious. Usually the local newspaper will issue a warning to city residents when levels are high so it pays to read the local news.

The advice above while specific to Quito, may be applied to other cities if similar conditions exist.