How to turn walk into effective workout: Secrets from trainers

Fortunately, there are many ways to make your daily walk significantly more effective for burning calories, strengthening muscles, and improving endurance. Turn your regular route into a real workout by following a few simple rules and techniques.

Increase pace

The main difference between a lazy stroll and a workout is intensity. To increase effectiveness, increase your walking speed. Your goal is to reach a pace at which you can still talk but can no longer sing. This is called "power walking". It significantly raises your heart rate, making your heart work harder, which is excellent cardio training. Try to maintain this pace for most of your walk after warming up.

Look for hills and stairs

The easiest way to increase intensity is to involve terrain. Routes with hills or stairs make your leg muscles (quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings) work much harder. Walking uphill is great for strength training, and walking downhill (carefully) engages stabilizer muscles. If there are no natural hills nearby, use stairs in parks or near buildings. Alternate walking on flat surfaces with climbs for an interval effect.

Use intervals

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is effective not only for runners. You can easily apply it while walking. Alternate periods of very fast walking (almost jogging) lasting 1–3 minutes with periods of slower walking for recovery of the same or slightly longer duration. Repeat this cycle several times. Intervals significantly increase calorie burning, improve metabolism, and endurance.

Work your arms

Let your arms not just hang down alongside your body. Actively bend them at the elbows at about a 90-degree angle and move them in rhythm with your steps – forward and backward. This arm movement not only helps maintain a fast pace but also engages the muscles of the shoulders, back, and arms, turning walking into a more complex full-body workout.

Add weights

If you are ready for a bigger challenge, try adding weights. A special weighted vest will distribute the weight evenly. As an alternative, you can use a backpack filled with books or bottles of water. Even a small extra load will make your muscles work harder. If you are an experienced walker, you can try walking with small handheld dumbbells, performing swings or other simple exercises while moving (but be careful with technique).

Change surfaces and routes

Walking on uneven surfaces (forest trails, gravel, sand) requires more work from the stabilizer muscles of the ankles, knees, and core. This not only makes the workout more effective but also helps to develop coordination and prevent injuries. Regularly change your routes to engage different muscle groups and avoid routine.

Include strength stops

Turn your walk into a circuit workout. Every 5–10 minutes, stop and perform 15–20 repetitions of simple strength exercises using your body weight and elements of the environment:

• Squats
• Lunges (forward, backward, sideways)
• Push-ups from a bench or wall
• Step-ups onto a bench
• Plank (if there is a clean surface)

Earlier, we revealed how many calories you can burn by walking 7 to 10 thousand steps.

Sources: WomensHealth, BBC Health.

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