Walk with purpose, not just for its own sake.
We’ve long-since established the general health benefits of taking a proper walk around the block every day. You work your legs, you get some good cardio in, you get some fresh air, so on and so forth. But while a walk can be a good warm-up for a full workout routine, you can make it a bit more of an impactful activity if you walk with particular purpose in mind.
When most folks go for a walk, they’re just walking from point A to point B. Everything in between is just transit time to zone out in. Firstly, you shouldn’t zone out while walking, it could be dangerous. Secondly, if you purposefully walk on particular kinds of paths, remaining conscious of your legs while you do so, you could actually improve your gains. For example, let’s say there’s a long path around a large hill. You could just stay on the path and keep yourself fairly level, but you could also try walking up the hill. An incline adds some glute work to your walk, and increases your calorie burn since your legs have to work a little harder.
If you walk the same path every day, a fun way to challenge yourself is to set a stopwatch and see how long a single circuit takes you. When you become more familiar with paths and roads and their intricacies, you tend to be able to navigate them more quickly. It’s the same way with driving a car. When you know how long a circuit takes you, try to do it a little faster every time. Don’t force yourself into a full sprint, just see if you can make the journey a little more efficient.
If you really want to motivate yourself, see if you can recruit a friend to take a walk with you. Good company can make dull tasks much more fun and engaging, and if you’re engaged, you may think of new ways to spice up the walk on the fly. They call it “thinking on your feet” for a reason.
