It's not always easy to get the exercise you need. Perhaps the weather is bad and you must take a taxi in Toronto instead of walking. Maybe your apartment needs cleaning and you just don't have time to put on your aerobics video. Maybe your car needed emergency repairs and you just don't have any money left over in the budget for gym memberships. Whatever your trouble, there's a form of exercise that can work around it. Mall walking, for example, is gaining in popularity. Read on to learn more about mall walking.

Mall walking is exactly what it sounds like: walking in the mall. Walking is a great form of exercise that can burn up to 100 calories per mile, but often times our Canadian winters make it impossible to venture out of our North York condos for more than the few minutes it takes to get to our cars. In weather like that, it can be hard to get your daily walk in. Gyms have treadmills or indoor walking tracks, but they cost money to use. Mall walking is free and indoors, so it is the logical solution to these ubiquitous Canadian problems.

Malls are huge indoor spaces with long corridors and pedways that make it perfect for talking unobstructed indoor walks. Some malls are even obligingly circular or figure eight shaped so you don't even have to turn around at the end. Mall walking allows us to stretch your legs much better than walking on treadmills in our Yonge condos, and it's also much less boring, because lots of people come out to participate in mall walking, so you can combine it with catching up with friends.

Mall walking is about exercise, not about shopping for new furniture for your Toronto condo. You'll want to walk brusquely and in a straight line, which obviously makes it impossible to do when the mall is open and crowded with shoppers. For this reason, most malls have special mall walking hours, usually one to two hours before the mall's usual opening time, where the corridors but not the shops are open. If the mall usually opens at eight or nine, this could be the prefect time to take your exercise before going to work.

Walking is a relatively low impact form of exercise and the indoor climate makes it much easier. For this reason, mall walking is especially popular with senior citizens and less popular with busy professionals who own King West condos. However, people of any age may participate. To find out whether the mall nearest you has mall walking hours, speak to mall staff (such as the information desk or the security guard) or visit their website and look under special programs.