Walk Your Way to Health: 9 Tips to Make Walking Workouts More Effective

Being a healthy woman isn’t achieved alone by going to the gym, working out, or eating healthily. There is also one workout method that has been around since the dawn of human existence. Sad to say that we don’t pay too much attention to it due to the wide availability of transportation.

Yes, the workout method I’m talking about is walking. Since you’re part of the pro cheer community, I can safely assume that you do follow an active lifestyle. However, my point of writing this article is to help you add variety to your fitness routine. These are the techniques to make your walking even more challenging for a better pro cheer life.

1. Don’t be too meticulous about your clothing, but dress the part

You don’t need to wear the latest gym shirts, tank tops, shorts, pants, and shoes from Nike, Adidas, and Underarmour to do walking workouts. What’s important is that your clothing is comfortable, ergonomic, can help you sweat, and protects you from the weather while you walk.

2. Start with a dynamic warmup

To avoid cramps and other forms of injuries as you walk, you must do some dynamic warmups. These warmups require you to move while you stretch. Examples are the dynamic pigeon, leg swings, frog walk-in, heels walks, toe walks, knee hugs, and walking quad stretch.

3. Increase the pace

You walk every day and your body has gotten used to your pace. Although you sweat through this, it’s better to increase your pace so you can sweat even more. The next time you’re having your walking workout, increase your pace gradually until you’re brisk walking.

4. Put in a little light jogging

Don’t just brisk walk, increase your pace even higher until you start to light jog. Keep on jogging lightly until you start to need more air. Slowly go back to your brisk walking pace. Then catch your breath as you walk normally.

5. Add intervals

Add more challenge to your walking workouts by light jogging for a longer duration. An example would be walking for 15 minutes, brisk walking for 10 minutes, light jogging for 7 minutes before going back to brisk walking and walking normally. Repeat this process.

6. Swing your arms

Walking is a good cardio workout that develops your lower body muscles. But you can also target some of your upper body muscles like your biceps, shoulders, and triceps by swinging your arms in the same way race walkers do.

7. Make longer steps

Another way to add challenge to your walking workouts is to make your steps longer. However, you must be careful not to overstride and cause your legs and feet to be strained too much. Make your long strides as you transition from a brisk walking pace to your normal one.

8. Pause and do bodyweight exercises

You can do bodyweight exercises if you’re able to encounter a platform you can use along the way. For example, you can use a monkey bar in a children’s park to do some chin-ups. You can also use vacant benches for step-ups.

9. Walk with weights

Once you get used to regular walking workouts and feel that your body is lighter, that would be the time to add weights. Ankle weights are good because they target your leg and hip muscles for stronger and more stable kicks. They also help you walk, run faster, and jump higher.

For those who don’t want to tone their legs and calves too much, you can walk while carrying dumbbells. To get the most of the benefits for your upper body, follow the instructions from #6.

The most important tip to make any workout effective is consistency. It’s true that a single workout session from time to time will make you sweat, but that isn’t enough to reap noticeable benefits. If you want to be healthier and have more stamina from walking, then do your walking workouts every day or at least 4 times a week.

Read these articles for more fitness knowledge!

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