If getting fit is at the top of your agenda this New Year, why not join us as we discover how you can transform your humble walk into a fitness workout.

After a week or two of festive feasting, getting fitter and losing weight are resolutions that top the list for many of us. A New Year seems to inspire a desire for healthier living and better bodies, although for many of us, the task is a daunting one.

However, if you already enjoy our walking features and regularly head out into beautiful Wales for a walk then the good news is that it’s perfectly possible to turn your regular walks into fitness boosting sessions without too much effort at all. In seven easy steps your walk-out will become your work-out, and you’ll be able to enjoy a boost in fitness, calorie burning and all-round energy.

Come Walk with Me

The first step to improving your fitness through walking is to find a friend or partner who wants to come on the journey with you. Studies show that people who pair up with a friend to exercise are less likely to cancel and are more likely to exercise for longer. A two hour walk will soon fly by if you can use it as an excuse to catch up with a good friend and put the world to rights, and if someone else is relying on you to turn up for your scheduled walk, you’re less likely to stay on the sofa.

Or, why not resolve to try a local walking group this New Year? Not only will you discover some great new walks and events, but you might meet some new friends along the way too.

Top of the Hill

The second step to boosting your walk work-outs is to include more uphill sections in each of your walks. This will be easy in most of our stunning Border areas because rolling hills, steep valleys and rugged mountains stretch the length of the region. If you’re not used to uphill walking then start small, with just a short incline and gradually work up to including more and more uphill sections, perhaps even vowing to complete a dedicated hill walk once or twice a month.

Walking uphill forces your muscles to work harder, makes your core abdominal muscles contract to keep your body upright and demands that your heart and lungs move oxygen around the body more efficiently. Practicing uphill walking will soon improve your fitness as your body becomes accustomed to working in a different way.

Include Interval

Interval exercise is simply short bursts of high intensity activity followed by a longer recovery period of lower intensity activity. Experts believe that interval training is a highly effective way to improve fitness because it makes more demands on the body than simply training at one steady pace.

It’s easy to include interval training in your walks – after warming up at your usual pace for 10 minutes, increase your walking speed to as fast as you can comfortable go and keep the pace for a minute. Return to your usual pace for another five minutes, repeat the highest speed for a minute, then slow down for another five. Keep repeating for the duration of your walk. As you get accustomed to this type of walking, the slower intervals can become shorter and the faster intervals should become more intense – walking at your absolute maximum pace so that you really push yourself.

Outdoor Gym

Another crucial step in boosting your walks is to include weights. Weights aren’t just for the gym, there are now a great range of specially made ankle and wrist weights that you can wear while walking. The more weight you carry the harder your body works and the more calories you burn. However, before you start with walking weights, check with a specialist to make sure you’ve got the correct size and fit.

Pole Position

Nordic Walking is one of the quickest growing fitness trends in the UK and grabbing some poles could help you burn between 25 and 40% more calories than regular walking alone. Nordic walkers use 95% of the muscles in their body, which leads to serious fat and calorie burning. If you’re a beginner to Nordic walking, why not look for a local instructor or class to help with technique? You can find an instructor at www.nordicwalking.co.uk.

Jump Start

Once your fitness has started to improve by interval walking, uphill hiking and walking with weights, it may be time to add some different kind of movement to your walks. Surprise your body by stopping your walk to add bursts of star-jumps, stretches, sit-ups or even short periods of running. The change of pace and different use of muscles will keep your body working hard and will burn extra calories.

Work the Walk

And finally, one of the easiest steps to boost your walks is to schedule in a longer, more challenging walk every week. Keep up the shorter training walks during the week, but use the weekend to push yourself further and faster than before. Long walks are great for building up stamina, and could give you the opportunity to put some of the new walking work-out skills above to the test.

Who needs the gym and a static treadmill when our beautiful border region is one enormous fitness park, and even better, is right on our doorstep. Happy walking!

image by Sebastian Pothe (freeimages.com)