Step by step, why walking more is your secret weapon!

Fashion, it’s rife in the fitness industry too. The latest supplement, celebrity trainer, the newest HIIT workout. With all this noise, it can often be easy to overlook what actually works.

Walking is never going to be touted as the sexy new workout but it should be valued as one of the most fundamental forms of exercise. Here’s why: The body was made to walk. Sitting is not the natural state for us a species but the tendency to sit more means we are now increasingly prone to muscle imbalances, back pain and weight gain. We have not evolved that greatly from prehistoric man but our activity levels have.

The leanest people I know are consistent movers. Such is my belief in walking that I’ve run a good few step challenges over the years. The stand out thing from these is that those who rack up the most steps, often carry the least body fat. Whilst nutrition plays a huge role in body composition, our movement throughout the day comes close second.

Vitamin D. The average child now spends less time outside than the average prisoner. We are losing our con- nection to nature and with it, a host of benefits. We are in the midst of a mental health pandemic and we can undoubtedly cite lower movement and access to the elements as a contributing factor. Low mood and energy? Get outside and soak up the free vitamins.

The bigger you are, the more beneficial it is! If you were to load up a backpack with five bags of sugar then go for a walk, your calorie burn would be way higher than without. As someone who’s been overweight, I know the feeling of going gung ho with intense workouts to try to shed the pounds, only to fall off the wagon fed up. What I wish I knew then was that walking was a great start and it was burning more