How to transform your walk into a workout

Published October 2024 | 5 min read 
Expert contributor Amelia Phillips, nutritionist and exercise scientist 
Words by Donnay Torr 

Walking can be a powerful and accessible way to stay fit and healthy, no matter your age. These five tips will help you make your daily hike even more effective.

If walking is your main source of exercise, we’ve got good news. While there are already many health benefits of walking for an average of only 30 minutes a day, a few simple tweaks can take your daily stroll from being a low-impact exercise to one that is even more heart-friendly and muscle-building.

Walking for exercise may help lower the risk of heart disease, cognitive impairment and dementia, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers, controlling blood pressure and cholesterol, and weight management.

“Walking’s many physical benefits centre around heart health,” explains nutritionist and exercise scientist Amelia Phillips. “Walking will improve your lung capacity and cardiac efficiency [your heart’s ability to pump oxygenated blood around your body]. These cardiovascular benefits translate to better energy usage and having more energy throughout the day.”

Walking is also good for bone density (especially in premenopausal women) and muscle strength, improving balance and coordination. Additionally, walking supports good mental health, with recent research suggesting that, combined with a healthy diet, exercise like walking often beats or at least matches the efficiency of medication used in the treatment of low-grade depression and anxiety.

“What we call green exercise – or blue exercise, if you live near the beach – is all about getting out in nature,” says Amelia. “There’s strong evidence to show how beneficial this is for mental health.”

There’s also the positive social element of walking with friends, she adds, and you’re getting a dose of vitamin D.

How often should I be walking?

The Australian government’s guidelines suggest that adults aged 18 to 64 years should aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate activity on most days of the week.

And it doesn’t matter how you divvy this up, says Amelia: “You can do a brisk 10-minute walk three times a day, or an hour and a half spent on big weekend hikes with your friends.”

The secret is the intensity of each walk: while a gentle wander is great if you’re revelling in scenery, you’ll be more likely to hit your health and fitness goals if you walk fast enough to get your heart rate up. Our bodies adapt to what we do, so mixing things up is important.

“When you first start a new exercise routine, you see the benefits and gains, but if you keep doing the same thing over time, you’re going to plateau,” says Amelia. “The real benefits to exercise come from the principle of overload: when our bodies are continuously challenged or ‘overloaded’ in some form, it triggers an adaptation, which triggers an improvement.”

How to turn your walk into a workout

Walking at a leisurely pace will only get you so far, says Amelia. If you have specific fitness goals and want to continue improving your health, these tips will help transform your daily stroll into a fitness booster.

1. Choose hills and stairs. This is a simple and cost-effective way to level up your walking workouts. Walking uphill works your glutes, core and calves, while walking downhill sparks eccentric movement (muscle-lengthening contractions that act like brakes to slow our body down).

"That braking force every time your foot strikes involves a part of our physiology called power training, which is important as we age and our muscles lose the ability to exert power. Walking downhill also ‘forces’ balance, which can improve flexibility and help to prevent falls,” Amelia says.

2. Speed up your stride. An effective walk should feel slightly uncomfortable, and consciously faster than just strolling around.

“Try doing a time trial: pick two points on your regular walking route and time yourself, aiming to continuously improve your speed,” says Amelia. And short intervals are also effective: “One minute of super-fast walking followed by one minute of regular walking and repeat for as long as you can.”

Additionally, aim to go longer and further each time you’re out for a walk.

3. Carry weights while walking. Steadily increasing the weight carried on a walk can be effective to gradually improve strength, stamina and fitness, especially if you have health conditions that preclude you from short, sharp bursts of high-intensity exercises. There are two ways to do this that are effective, says Amelia.

"The first is called rucking, where you wear a weighted vest, the weight being anywhere from 5 to 15% of your body weight. You normally start at 5% and over a month or so build up to 15% of your body weight,” she says.

To imitate this on a budget, you can load a backpack with water bottles, but Amelia cautions that a weighted vest is safer because the weight is more evenly distributed.

“A second popular option is wearable weights: weighted bands you can wear around your arms and ankles,” she adds. “You see them in a lot of Pilates classes, and they work well for your walk, too.”

We suggest seeking the advice of a medical professional before introducing weights if you have a history of injury or back pain.

4. Monitor your heart rate. Amelia recommends aiming for about 50 to 70% of your maximum heart rate. To calculate your estimated maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. For example, if you’re 50 years old, your maximum heart rate is estimated at 170bpm (220 minus your age). So, your ideal walking heart rate is 85 to 119bpm. However, if you have a history of heart-related issues, find your heart rate is excessively high or you feel something isn’t right, see a health professional.

There are plenty of fitness trackers that can help you track this, or try the simple yet surprisingly accurate (and free) talk test.

“Essentially, if you can chat and easily hold a conversation, you’re not walking fast or hard enough. But if you can spit out a sentence or two and then have to catch your breath while your [walking] partner answers, that’s a good sign you’re going fast enough.”

5. Vary your walking style: Adding long strides, exaggerated arm swings, lunges (an eccentric exercise) or squeezing your glutes while climbing stairs can increase the energy you burn, and engage and strengthen more muscle groups.

Strong glutes help with proper walking form by supporting the stability of your lower back, pelvis, knees and ankles, so consciously activating your glute muscles can add to the intensity of your walk while helping you walk even better in future.

Remember, slow and steady improvement is best. If you’re planning any major exercise changes, first consult a health professional, physiotherapist, exercise scientist or personal trainer to rule out underlying injuries or health niggles, and to help plan an exercise program that works for you.

Creating your healthy life

We’re helping eligible members save on the evidence-based CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet^*. Created by Australia’s national science agency, the program combines a higher protein, low-GI eating plan with proven weight management tools to help improve habits and create lifelong positive behaviours.

Carrying extra weight can take its toll at any stage and age. That’s why we’ve partnered with Prima Health Solutions, to give eligible members^{^} who are overweight and have osteoarthritis or are at risk of developing a chronic condition free access to our Healthy Weight for Life program to help you lose weight and improve your quality of life.  

Eligible members may also be able to claim on exercise classes through their extras cover if they're referred by their doctor. Call us on 13 13 34 to find out more.