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Walking for exercise, to increase the number of steps you take throughout your day, and for mental recharging are three excellent reasons to get outside walking as often as you can! Walking with a partner, talking on the phone or listening to music or podcasts can help make the time go by. Warning though, talking and listening to music, books/podcasts often creates a distraction that can lead to falls, trips, etc. so be cautious.
 

If you are looking to add more exercise daily and gain strength there are easy ways to ​boost your walks for a greater challenge and overall workout.
 

First off — If you find that walking for you is hard enough right now that is fine! You now have your starting point and everyone needs a place to start. Beginners, those with balance issues, or people who are mostly sedentary during the day can strive to make walking a more consistent habit. Your initial goals would be to increase duration and then speed/intensity. Remember your duration and your intensity are unique to you! Begin at your own pace. Setting attainable goals will help create habits you stick with. Over time your daily walking will be something you look forward to doing and won’t want to miss!

Quick Tips for Beginners:

• Notice your walking pace when you are walking comfortably vs. when you take it up a notch to a power walking speed.

• Use good gait walking. Step forward with one leg swinging the opposite arm forward.

• Begin at an easy pace. Either plan to walk till you reach a mile or use a timed goal like walking for 20 minutes.

• As you progress, make your walks more than just a walk by adding in some timed intervals of faster walking.

 

If you are already an active walker and can go out for 30 minutes or more, chances are you are ready to take your walking up a notch! Adding a faster pace, walking up hills, jogging and/or adding full body strengthening exercises along the way will take your walks “up a notch”!

Quick Tips for Active Walkers:

• Increase your speed: Add faster walking for 20-30 second intervals. You can choose to walk for a minute really fast and a minute slower and keep repeating. There are tons of options. The idea is to add in a bit of a challenge to your sustainable walking.

• Incline walking: Walking up hills adds intensity and builds stamina, strength and will improve your aerobic capacity. Notice your heart rate will increase as you do more climbing.

• Add a higher intensity interval: A popular style of interval training is called Tabata. Tabata is a high intensity 4 minute drill. You work very hard for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds. This is repeated 8 times. (There are free Tabata APPs you can download to your phone.) The work intervals can vary depending on your fitness level. It simply could be walking very vigorously—think of the train at the station and you need to get on before the doors close! Or it could mean jogging, running or an all out sprint. Tabata is just one type of interval but you can create any length of time for your higher intensity intervals. You can do something hard for 40 seconds, harder for 30 seconds or the hardest for 20 seconds.

• Add in additional exercises to your walk: Incorporating body strengthening exercises can enhance your walk. Examples of exercises include: alternating knee lifts, squats, lunges, pushups, skips, Jumping jacks and more! Examples might include—walk for 5 minutes at a good pace and then do 60 seconds of alternating knee lifts. Or, plan three times during your walk to do 10 pushups. Beginners can do pushups against a wall or a bench. More advanced enthusiasts might try the pushups on the ground or against a low bench or the street curb. There are endless moves you can incorporate into your walk if you want to take it up a notch.
   

The bottom line is walking is a great option for most people who are looking to add activity and exercise daily. Adding in some intervals of challenging work and or body strengthening moves will improve your overall workout and help you gain more strength, endurance and mobility.