Walking is an underrated exercise. It’s low impact, raises your heart rate, and helps reduce the risk of developing many health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, and high blood pressure. It’s an effective rest day workout for avid exercisers and perfect for those starting or restarting their fitness goals.
Walking is simple, free, and suitable for people of all ages and fitness levels. However, walking is often considered less effective than other activities, such as running, cycling, or swimming.
Unfortunately, walking is easy to dismiss as exercise since it’s seen as slow and inefficient. Fortunately, exercise doesn’t have to be done at a high intensity to improve your overall health. Research has shown that walking at a moderate pace has health benefits. So, how can you get the most out of it?
Walking Fast Enough To Hit The Sweet Spot
When you walk during the day around your home, the office, or running errands, you walk at your normal pace so much that you’re not even thinking about it. The difference between everyday walking and walking for exercise is picking up the pace to increase your heart rate into the moderate zone.
If you wear a fitness tracker, moderate exercise is when your heart rate is between 50% and 70% of your maximum heart rate, which, in simple terms, is 220 minus your age. For example, if you’re 40, your maximum heart rate is roughly 180 beats per minute. Moderate activity is when your heart rate is between 90 and 126 beats per minute. Moderate activity feels somewhat challenging—for example, your breathing rate increases, but you’re not out of breath. You can carry on a conversation, but you can’t sing.
But what if you don’t wear a fitness tracker? You could power walk, which involves taking quick, controlled steps while swinging your arms. These controlled movements will help elevate your heart rate. However, you may unconsciously slow down to your normal walking speed unless you’re paying attention. One solution is to use music to help power your pace and keep your heart rate up.
Pacing Your Walks Through Music
Music can lift your mood and improve your concentration and focus. It can also make your walks more enjoyable. With the right beat, you can power walk, raise your heart rate, and have a good time while improving your health and well-being.
Music between 120 and 130 beats per minute (BPM) may help you achieve and maintain your pace. The faster the song, the more intense your walk. Depending on your height and stride length, you will have to experiment to find the sweet spot.
Services like Spotify and Apple Music have curated lists for workouts and moods. They also have lists specifically for 120 and 130 BPM. However, if you want to build your own list from your favorite songs, you can find out how fast your songs are by looking them up on Tunebat or BPM Supreme. In no time, you can build different playlists for different workouts and power walk your way to better health and fitness.
How Far Should You Walk?
Distance doesn’t matter, especially when you’re first starting. It’s more important to track how long you walk. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends healthy adults aged 18–65 participate in moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 30 minutes on five days per week. Every adult should also perform activities that maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance for at least two days per week.
You may not be able to do that today, but you can slowly increase your walk time to get enough exercise every week. As your body adapts and becomes stronger and more efficient, you may have to walk farther to exercise for the same time as before. If that’s the case, that means you’re becoming more fit!
Add Variety To Your Walks
Even if you enjoy your go-to spot to walk, whether outside or on a treadmill, adding variety to your workouts will keep things fresh and help avoid boredom and burnout. Walking in different places is an opportunity to get in your workout and explore. If you cannot switch up your location, try walking your typical route in reverse. You can also change the pace and time of day to mix things up.
Nature walks and areas with hills and uneven surfaces can make your workouts more challenging. You’ll activate more muscles and strengthen the ones that help stabilize you, improving your balance and reducing your risk of falling.
Enjoying The Moment
Walking can be an excellent opportunity to take a break from your busy day. Walking by yourself is a great way to clear your mind and reduce your stress. While walking, pay attention to your breathing, pace, and surroundings. Enjoy the moment and take it all in. Walking with a friend can make it more enjoyable, and you can both socialize and motivate each other.
Whether you walk with friends or go alone, practice good posture by keeping your head up, eyes forward, and shoulders relaxed. Take deep, rhythmic breaths to improve oxygen flow, making your walk more relaxing and energizing. Exercise benefits both your body and mental health.
Track Your Progress
Having fitness goals means putting in the time and effort to achieve them. It also means maintaining consistency when motivation and willpower are at their lowest points. Most fitness trackers can monitor your activity so you can track your workouts.
Tracking your progress shows you where you were and where you are now. Seeing your progress unfold can be very motivating, and with a fitness tracker and app, it can happen automatically. A fitness tracker can monitor your heart rate to help keep you in the zone. It can track calories burned and steps taken to help you reach your daily goals.
However, going for a walk when you’re sore or feeling rundown to ensure you hit your numbers is a recipe for disaster. It increases your risk of injury and can take the fun out of exercising. If you’re not feeling physically up for it, taking time off to rest and recover is not only okay but encouraged. A day or two away isn’t enough to erase all your hard work.
The Takeaway
Walking is an excellent exercise. It’s also the perfect exercise to kickstart your fitness journey or as a rest day workout. A brisk walk can improve your mood and help reduce your risk of developing certain health conditions. There are many ways you can enhance your walking sessions. Walk with a friend, listen to music, and explore new places. Using a fitness tracker and app can automatically track your progress, which can be motivating to see your improvements over time.
FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your workouts, weight, mood, calories, and more. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect supported gadgets to your account to make it easier for you to update your journal automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!
Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
