Real Health Podcast: How to make walking your ultimate health and wellness workout

It might be considered the most basic form of exercise, but walking can be the ultimate workout. This week I’m bringing you my top tips on how to take walking to the next level. For years, I’ve been talking about how beneficial walking can be. It's easy to do, gentle on the joints and when done properly can deliver fantastic fitness results.

Walking is great for your cardiovascular health, muscle health and mental health. However, you won’t achieve these benefits if you don’t maintain intensity. If you like targets or want to know what pace to walk at, I suggest four miles an hour. If you find that too slow, you can walk quicker. Just make sure that the pace I’m recommending is the minimum you are doing.

Real Health Podcast: How to make walking your ultimate health and wellness workout

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Then there is the question of weights. A lot of people ask if they are necessary in order to make walking a full body workout or to increase the difficulty. Personally, I think they’re uncomfortable and don’t deliver a huge amount of benefit. A great way to vary your walking is to introduce hills on your walking route. Walking up and downhill is great for our muscles and targets our calves, glutes, quads and hamstrings.

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And you can get in touch - I’m @KarlHenryPT on Instagram and realhealth@independent.ie.

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The Real Health podcast is in association with Laya Healthcare.