Walking, as simple as it sounds, is a great way for you to burn calories, especially after you’ve eaten a hearty meal. Plus, walking can reduce your risk of bigger health problems, such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and battling the bulge.
Also, you typically don’t have to spend a lot of time planning where you’re going to walk. So, this means that you can go for a walk spontaneously when the urge hits. And if you don’t feel like going alone, you can take your dog or even encourage your partner or friends and other family members to join you.
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No matter how fit you are walking is an exercise that you can start doing tomorrow. It’s great for beginners and the young and old as it’s gentle of joints and ligaments. You can also increase and maintain your mobility, which means if you are older then you can improve your health and fitness without fear of injury.
So, how can you make walking a workout?
Let’s look at 5 ways you can take your walking to the next level, with minimal effort.
Way #1 Explore More
Instead of just walking around the block, like you always have, start exploring your area more. By pushing yourself to walk further you’ll increase your cardiovascular (heart & lung) function, and you’ll discover that your body will respond by developing your muscle to cope with the extra activity. As a result, you should gradually notice that your body changes with better skin tone and less noticeable excess weight.
Way #2 Legging It For Longer
Rather than going for a 15-minute walk, push the time limit out by 5-minutes for a week. So, you’re going for a 20-minute walk daily. Then the following week add another 5-minutes. If you continue to this weekly before you know it you’ll be walking for an hour and feeling far better physically, mentally and emotionally than you did when you started.
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Way # 3 The Uphill Push
To continually improve your fitness once you’ve been walking for a while, seek out hills and inclines near you and start walking up these. Over time, you’ll find that your stamina and endurance levels increase so that you’re able to walk up hills for longer and you can take on steep inclines.
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Way # 4 Get Your Step On
Stairs are an excellent way to increase your fitness and health. These small, but often challenging variants to walking , work muscles, ligaments and joints that may otherwise not work much at all.
If you’re worried that adding stairs to your walking may be too much, then start with a few stairs, to begin with. Once you’re comfortable with the stairs, then start increasing their number.
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Way #5 Location Potion
If you’re looking to push yourself even further, then you can start going to various locations such as beaches and walking trails in national parks. These types of walks not only get you out of your home and local area, but they also let you explore nature and allow you to improve your health holistically.
Want to know more about walking as a workout? Then drop the editor a line and suggest an article topic. InShape News would love to hear from you 🙂
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