We have good news: You don’t necessarily have to enjoy weight running or running fast miles on treadmills to build lower body strength.
These short walking exercises will strengthen your cardiovascular fitness and build stronger hips, glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and core muscles by simply increasing the number of steps you take and making walking more fun and challenging.
We’ve put together three walking workouts for all ability levels, and some of them don’t require the best treadmills to program. You can do them at the gym, at home, or outdoors if you enjoy being in nature.
And if you’re looking for an easy way to boost your mental strength and improve your mood, a review in the journal Science Advances tells you that nature walks are an extremely accessible way to get the endorphins flowing and feelings of anxiety to reduce.
Putting on hiking boots and breathing in fresh air is the perfect way to burn calories, boost your metabolism and pump blood to your muscles. Here are three of our favorite bodyweight walking workouts to try.
What are the 3 walking workouts?
Anyone can do these exercises, regardless of their abilities. If you prefer to add a set of dumbbells or kettlebells, weight vests, ankle weights or wrist weights to your workout to increase the resistance of your muscles, you can do so. However, be careful not to run or jog with it as this increases the impact on your joints.
Walking training 1: Tempo game intervals
Have you ever wondered what 30 minutes of power walking can do for your body?
The mixed intensity of this workout is similar to fartlek training (alternating between walking, jogging, and running), but at walking speed. You can improve overall cardiovascular fitness and increase muscular endurance by teaching your body to alternate between higher and lower intensities, placing different energy demands on the body.
Power walking involves walking faster than normal walking, usually between 4 and 5.5 miles per hour. If you like tracking your workouts, we recommend one of the best fitness trackers to record those workouts.
Time 25 minutes: Power walk intervals
- Interval 1: Walk vigorously for 2 minutes and then rest for 1 minute
- Interval 2: Walk vigorously for 3 minutes, walk for 1 minute, rest for 1 minute
- Interval 3: Walk vigorously for 5 minutes and then walk for 2 minutes
- Interval 4: Power walk for 7 minutes, walk for 3 minutes
If you like power walking, check out more of the best power walking workouts for beginners, intermediate, or advanced. During slower walks and breaks, focus on long, drawn-out breaths to lower your heart rate.
You should try to keep your arms at a 90-degree angle and move them back and forth, which should help you move forward as you walk. Try to stand upright and avoid flips by shortening your cadence.
Walking Training 2: Quadriceps and Hamstrings EMOM
Incline walking emphasizes the posterior chain muscles that run down the back of your body, including the lower back, glutes, hamstrings, calf muscles, and hip flexors.
Tighten your core to protect your lower back and stand upright with your entire spine. Walking downward puts more stress on the quadriceps and front of the body, even without weights.
Use stairs, treadmill, or hilly terrain for this workout. Try to find a challenging incline and have some weights ready to carry for the farmer’s walk – this could include a backpack, filled water bottles, kettlebells, dumbbells, or even food.
Set up your space so that you can switch between exercises efficiently and without being rushed.
Time: 25 minutes
EMOM (every minute to the minute) x 8 rounds
- Minute 1: Gradient gear
- Minute 2: Decline in Farmer’s Walk
- Minute 3: Diagonal lunges
Start by walking at a fast pace along an incline for 50 seconds or until you reach the top of the hill or stairs (whichever comes first), then use the remaining 10 seconds to rest.
In the second minute, pick up your weights and walk downhill. In the third minute, repeat walking uphill with lunges (here you can choose whether to drop the weights or not).
Keep your glutes tight and avoid striking your heels. Adjust training to suit your preferences if necessary. Check out this 3-Move Walking Workout to learn a similar workout with this setup and style.
Walking training 3: Pyramid inclines
For simplicity, this 15-minute workout is best done on a treadmill. Work based on a rate of perceived exertion (RPE) of 10, where 10 is your hardest effort and 1 is your easiest. This could mean scrapping the numbers below (remember they are guidelines only) and aiming to work exclusively with RPE or a mix of both.
Time: 15 minutes
- 2 minutes: Walk at 2 miles per hour on a flat road (light effort)
- At 2 minutes: Increase the speed to your fastest possible walking pace and maintain the speed 1 minute
- At 3 minutes: Decrease your speed by 0.5-1 mph and increase the incline by 2%
- Every minute to the minute: Increase your incline by 2% and decrease your speed by 0.5-1 mph
- At 7 minutesYou should reach a 10% incline at a walking pace of about 2.5 miles per hour
- Start reversing the numbers so that every minute you go 0.5-1 mph faster and decrease the incline by 2%.
- Finish the hike with a 2-minute brisk walk.
Benefits of Walking Workouts
Remember to warm up gently before every walking workout, moving the relevant muscle groups through different movements and supplying your muscles with fresh oxygen and blood.
Whether you walk to lose weight or strengthen the bones and muscles in your lower body, walking for just 30 minutes a day can help with both. It also helps you burn more calories and boost your metabolism, which when combined with regular exercise and a balanced diet contributes to healthy fat loss.
Above all, remember that while walking can be challenging, it should also be fun and help relieve some of the tension of the day. If you enjoy walking with music or your favorite podcast, this is a great way to lift your mood.
