With a little know how you can turn an ordinary walk into a serious workout that will help you lose weight and tone muscle. No matter how long you’ve been walking, these exercise tips can help you shape up without spending hours in the gym.
Intervals
Intervals allow you to burn more calories by increasing your pace for short bursts. By switching between your regular walking pace and a speed walk or jog, it keeps your muscles guessing and keeps your heart rate up. Try walking for 5 minutes then picking up the pace for 2 minutes, doing this a few times in a row on a walk can lead to significant improvements in endurance and weight loss.
Lunges
Lunges help tone your legs and butt by isolating the quadriceps and gluteal muscles. To add lunges into your walk, simply increase your stride length and bend your knees. Dip your body down until the knee of your back leg almost touches the ground. Stand up and step forward with the opposite foot, and then repeat the motion. Doing 5 to 10 lunges with each leg will help strengthen muscles and give your legs a more toned look in no time.
Resistance bands
A pedometer isn’t the only tool that can make your walks more effective. Bringing along a latex rubber resistance band will allow you to tone your upper body while you walk. There are a variety of upper body toning exercises that can be done while walking. Adding these into your walk will greatly increase the number of calories burned and help you slim down faster.