So how bad is exercising outside on your health when pollution levels are high? Smog is a problem that plagues cities particularly in the summer when the temperatures rise. There is a lot of information on what to do when walking in the heat. But what about walking in the smog? Are there any risks with walking when pollution levels are high?

Besides being uncomfortable - scratchy throat and itchy eyes when you are outside for long periods of time there are some things you need to watch out for if you walk in a smoggy area. I live in Atlanta which has many summer days when the air is considered unhealthy by EPA standards. You can see the haze settled over the city when you approach it from any direction by either a car or a plane.

You try to be good to the environment and your well-being by walking to the store but is it really good for you to be walking when the air quality is bad? There have been a number of times when I have gone for a walk prepared for the heat only to find I have problems breathing, not bad, but uncomfortable. I don't have asthma, and I know my discomfort coincides with our orange and red air days (code for unhealthy air) so I decided to do a little research. Here is what I found out from the EPA web-site.

The colors are the first thing you notice when you start your walking vacation in Sicily, Italy. The sea is a surreal mix of blues and greens. Staring from your perch on a rocky slope down into the sea you can see the sandy bottom as clearly as you can see the black lanes in a pool when you are swimming laps. The black, white and grayish rocks that stick out of the sea or rise up out of sandy beaches will send even the least scientific among us to the nearest geology book.

Walkers in Sicily, Italy will be startled to see green cactus perched on hills with the blue-green waters of the Mediterranean in the background. Yellow grasses sway in the gentle sea breezes against the bright colors of the sea and the vivid green of the rolling hills.

As you walk along one of the many nature trails or working paths that cover the island of Sicily notice the different types of plants and birds you encounter and how different or similar they are to those you see closer to your home.

Walking with hand weights is a bad idea, walking with ankle weights is an even worse idea. Just because it may be a bad idea to walk with weights does not mean you should not add weight training to your walking program.

We have all seen people swinging weights while they are walking. Most likely they think they are burning more calories, but the fact is they would be better off dropping the weights and walking further or faster or both.

Walking with free weights can increase your blood pressure which is never a good thing. It also increases your risk of injury to tendons, ligaments, muscles and possibly your joints. Since many of us who walk are doing so because it is less stressful on our bodies than running, walking with weights makes no sense. Walking with ankle weights drastically increases your risk of knee injuries.

Bill Bryson's, A Walk in the Woods is for everyone who has ever dreamed of walking the Appalachian Trail but knows in the back of their mind that it is not going to happen.If you are the kind of hiker who has actually considered going with less water just so you could fit in a bottle of wine then this book is for you.

Bill Bryson moved to a small town in New Hampshire after living abroad for twenty years. He and his college roommate, Stephen Katz, decide to rediscover America by walking the Appalachian Trail (hence the title). Neither Bill Bryson nor Stephen Katz is in any shape to even consider such an undertaking, but consider it they do. A Walk in the Woods is the story of their hilarious adventures and encounters when they attempt to walk the entire length of the Appalachian Train from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine.

Bill Bryson's, A Walk in the Woods is the perfect book to read or listen to whether you enjoy a leisurely stroll through your neighborhood or are preparing to follow in these two intrepid souls footsteps on the AT (as the Appalachian Trail is known).