You don’t have to be a runner to work up a sweat: You can hit your stride just by walking.
“You can get a great workout by walking,” says Holy Name cardiologist Dr. Zankhana Raval. “It improves cardiovascular fitness and mobility and has a low impact on your joints. It also offers an easy way to work out without a gym or any special equipment.”
Intensity and duration make all the difference, she says.
“We’re talking about brisk walking, where you feel like you’re working,” she says. Dr. Raval recommends 30-60 minutes on most days.
You can build intensity in a few different ways. The first is by targeting 6,000-10,000 steps a day (many smartphones have a built-in pedometer you can use to keep track). Take note of your baseline, and set a goal that by the next week, you’ll ramp it up a bit. If you’re short toward the end of the day, go for a quick walk to make up some of the difference.
“That slowly builds stamina,” she says. “Slow, incremental changes can get you to 6,000 or even 10,000 steps.”
Other ways to build intensity are doing short bursts of faster walking (also known as interval training), finding more challenging terrain (like going up and down stairs or a hill), and adding resistance (such as hand weights or a weighted vest).
“This increases aerobic capacity and endurance, so you can achieve a better, faster, longer walk.”
But even a short, low-intensity walk has benefits, and if you’re coming from a mostly sedentary lifestyle, there’s nothing wrong with starting slow.
“If you start gradually, you’ll still get improvement in exercise tolerance,” Dr. Raval says. “And that makes you want to keep going.”
