Walk yourself fit

Impact injuries, lower back pain, sciatica and shin splints – just a few of the common complaints that can stop you running for a while. You may be desperate to put your trainers on and head outside, but there are times when you’re forced to find alternative exercise.With its potential for burning fat, boosting mood and increasing your heart rate, it seems hard to find anything that quite matches up to running. However, fitness experts insist that walking can provide similar benefits and keep your fitness regime on track – but only if you do it properly. ‘An amble in the park won’t do it. It might be enjoyable but it won’t keep you fit. Fast-paced walking, however, will keep you on form when you are injured and it’s low-impact,’ says Richard Bott, a nurse and fitness consultant at www.aspirefitnessconsultants.co.uk.‘Running burns more calories than straightforward walking, but there are plenty of techniques to increase intensity. It probably won’t keep you quite as fit as fast running can, but it will limit the losses while you recuperate,’ says Bott. Many pedometer fitness programmes recommend you aim for at least 10,000 steps a day. But research from the University of Alberta, Canada, suggests that to keep fit you have to increase the intensity of some of your walks, rather than just increasing the number of daily steps you take. ‘Walk faster, walk off-road and up gradients, and use your arms – it will all make your heart work harder,’ says Bott.

---

"Walking can provide similar benefits to running, and keep your fitness regime on track"

---

Fitness benefits

Michael White, fitness consultant and director of www.homehealthfitness.com, says, ‘Pump your arms as much as you can, and perhaps add some wrist-band weights to increase the challenge – but never more than 1.5kg on each wrist.’Walking with a heavy rucksack is an old-fashioned military fitness technique. ‘It’s not recommended, though, because it makes you lean forward, which may injure your spine. Similarly, don’t add leg-weights because that can alter your gait,’ says White.Aim to keep your posture upright, rather than bent forward, and your swing leg relatively straight as it hits the ground. It’s tempting to try to pick up speed by bending the knee of your lead leg, but this means you’re almost jogging rather than proper walking. For real fitness benefits, keep pace high, at least a 14-minute mile. Swing your arms vigorously while walking. Keep your arms bent and rigid at the elbow so your forearm doesn’t flop. Never allow your arms to hang down by your sides, as your walking intensity will plummet. Stop them swinging too far so they cross the centre of your body, because this distorts your posture and adds too much sideways motion.

---

When you’re running flat out, you’re likely to burn more calories than on a walk. But up the pace and add wrist weights and an incline, and power walking can just about equal the fitness effects of moderate jogging – and it’s low-impact.

---

Get the right technique

Trainer Joanna Hall (www.joannahall.com) runs Walkactive courses and walking time trials around the UK and insists you can reach a high level of fitness. She has devised her own walking technique. Walkers often clench their buttocks. Instead, she advises keeping hips stabilised, but not rigid, to tone buttocks and legs.‘Aim to increase the distance between your earlobe and shoulder. Keep arms bent at the elbow and concentrate on having a greater back swing than front. This increases spine rotation and whittles your waist.’Aim for a minimum of 30 minutes power walking, five times a week – but you don’t have to do the session all at once. A study at Loughborough University found that three, 10-minute walks a day (five times a week), had similar fitness benefits to a continuous 30-minute walk (five times a week). However, the short walkers lost more weight and more inches off their waists than the long walkers – perhaps because it’s easier to up the pace for 10 minutes. Improve by noting marker points along your regular walk. Try to reach each point quicker and complete the whole walk in increasingly faster times. Log your progress to keep motivated. At the weekend try a longer, tougher walk – a nine- or 10-mile ramble, for example. Join a walking group or an organised trek for an extra challenge (see www.ramblers.org.uk for local groups and events).