Try our top fifteen hacks for upgrading your walking routine. Walking on the treadmill or even walking outside can get boring after a while. Or maybe your fitness is plateauing. We’ve been using treadmills for years, so we know all about making a walking routine more exciting and effective. Use these hacks to progress your fitness and switch up your walking routine.
1. Use the Right Shoes
Comfortable shoes can make all the difference for treadmill walks or runs.
Regardless of whether you plan to walk on the treadmill or outside, your first step is to have the right shoes. A walking shoe or running shoe is best for this activity. Walking shoes provide cushioning and support for the foot throughout your activity.
A running shoe provides similar support but may be lighter weight with more breathable materials. A breathable material is important for keeping your feet cool and dry. For more information on selecting the right shoes, check out this list of the best running shoes for the treadmill.
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2. Choose the Right Treadmill
If you want to walk indoors, you may need a home treadmill. There are many types of walking treadmills. A fitness treadmill provides upright support and has better performance specs. Take a look at the top walking treadmills.
Some are very small and affordable. These treadmills are sometimes called walking pads or under-desk treadmills. They are great for multitasking and walking while you are working at a desk. You will need a standing desk or an adjustable height desk for this type of treadmill.
More affordable walking pads are best for short walks of up to an hour per day. If you walk more than an hour per day, invest in a more durable, well-made treadmill. A well-built under-desk treadmill or fitness treadmill can cost over $1,000, but it will last you a long time. You will be able to walk much more before needing to replace your treadmill.
3. Consider a Manual Treadmill
A manual treadmill makes your workout even harder.
An alternate hack is to use a manual treadmill for a more intense workout. These treadmills do not have motors. They require you to power the belt. It can be a flat belt, like most treadmills have. Other manual treadmills have curved belts made of rubber slats.
Manual treadmills are more challenging than walking on a motorized treadmill or even walking outdoors. Manual treadmills can burn up to 40% more calories, which can aid in weight loss goals. While they are non-folding and take up more space, they could be worth it, especially if you walk a lot. There’s no motor to burn out!
4. Add a Weighted Vest
Weighted vests come in a variety of sizes and with various weight capacities.
Wearing a weighted vest can make your walks more challenging and help you burn more calories. Weighted vests can make walking more intense. When you are walking for exercise, it is best to target a heart rate of 60% of your maximum heart rate or higher. Adding a weighted vest can help you reach that goal if you are walking at a slower pace. It can also help you increase your intensity without having to run.
5. Add Incline
Many home treadmills have incline mechanisms, which come in handy if you live in a flat area.
Walking uphill is more challenging than walking on a flat surface. You must fight gravity to move upwards. Walking on an incline is great for your posterior chain and your quads. Don’t be surprised if you feel the burn in your glutes, calves, or quads.
Using a treadmill with an incline mechanism makes uphill walking easier, as you can walk at a steep grade for as long as you want. You can walk uphill outside, but you will have to find a suitable hill. It would be difficult for most people to find a hill they can walk up for 30 minutes, but on a treadmill, you can walk uphill for thirty minutes without having to walk back down.
Many home treadmills incline up to 12%, which is quite the challenge. The steeper your incline grade, the calories you burn per minute.
6. Add Speed
Don’t be afraid to crank up the speed!
Instead of adding incline, you can add speed. You don’t even have to increase the speed of your entire workout. You can incorporate interval training to keep your walking workouts feeling fresh and challenging.
For those of you who are new to interval workouts, try adding 10-second bursts of speed into your current walking workout. Increase the pace to a challenging speed for just a few seconds to increase your heart rate and caloric burn. Recover between speed intervals, walking at your normal pace for 30 seconds to a few minutes.
As you get more comfortable with the intervals, increase the speed or time. Try alternating 30 seconds at a fast speed with 30 seconds at a slow speed. Your treadmill may have preprogrammed interval workouts that you can try as well.
7. Add Workout Variety
I’m tackling an interval workout, but tomorrow, I’ll probably do a steady-state workout.
Though interval workouts are great, it’s important to vary your walking workouts. You shouldn’t walk at a slow, consistent pace all the time, but you shouldn’t do only interval workouts either.
Do a variety of slow and steady workouts, speed intervals, and hill repeats. By varying your workouts, you will work your aerobic and anaerobic systems, reaping multiple health benefits. This strategy is used by professional endurance athletes to improve their fitness and performance, but you don’t have to be a professional for this strategy to work for you, too.
8. Take Care of Yourself
Stretch and rest in addition to walking.
Walking should not be painful, though interval workouts can be challenging. When you experience pain or sustain an injury while walking, it may be time to rest. Honestly, it was time to rest before the injury and pain occurred.
While getting adequate rest is an important component of any exercise regimen, pain or injury can also be a sign that you are using inadequate equipment or need to improve your walking form. If you have good walking shoes, it may be time to investigate whether you are walking with good form.
An asymmetrical walking gait can be a sign of muscle weakness or imbalance. Working with a physical therapist or personal trainer to correct faulty walking patterns can help your walking improve. Don’t let an injury sideline you from your exercise routine.
Don’t let pain while walking derail your routine. Do your best or ask for a professional’s help to find the cause of your discomfort. We’ve named three possible causes (overtraining, improper equipment, and dysfunctional walking form), but there could be others.
9. Are You Taking Enough Steps?
The number of steps you take per minute could be more important than you think.
One walking issue that you may be able to fix on your own is your walking cadence. This is the number of steps you take per minute. Try counting the number of steps you take per minute or use a fitness tracker to count your steps. If you take fewer than 100 steps per minute, you could benefit from retraining your walking gait to take more steps.
Start by increasing the number of steps you take by 10%. You can use a metronome app on your phone to set the pace. Increase your steps each time you can comfortably hit your current goal. Keep increasing your steps until you reach 100 steps per minute.
This process may take several weeks to accomplish. If you are unable to reach this goal on your own due to a muscle weakness or poor range of motion, you should consult an exercise professional for further help. This fix can help you take your walking to the next level.
10. Create a Routine That Works With Your Schedule
Plan your walks ahead of time, choosing a time and place that fits your lifestyle.
One of the hardest parts of creating a walking routine can be deciding when you are going to walk. Fortunately, we have hacks to help you schedule your routine.
Walking first thing in the morning is a great way to kickstart your day. It can leave you feeling accomplished and energized for what lies ahead. That mental boost in the morning is a rewarding feeling that can make your routine easier to stick to. However, you don’t have to have a big chunk of free time to dedicate to walking.
You can break your daily walking goal up into smaller sessions. You can walk for a shorter amount of time in the morning, afternoon, and evening for the same total time. Doing two, three, or even four shorter walking sessions per day can add up.
11. Time Your Walks Around Meals
A post-lunch walk has benefits beyond improving your cardiovascular fitness.
Scheduling your walks after you eat can help you increase the benefits of your walks. Walking has been shown to lower blood sugar, reducing your risk of metabolic disorders, like diabetes. Walking can also aid digestion. A post-meal walk is a great addition to your day, as it has multiple health benefits.
12. Choose the Right Speed
Pairing a heart rate monitor to your treadmill can help you decide on the right speed and intensity for your walks.
If you are walking before breakfast, it’s a good time for a slow walk. Walking in a fasted state at a slow pace helps you burn fat. If you walk too fast while in a fasted state, your body may not have enough carbohydrates stored up to use. Slow walking burns fat instead, so keep your walks slow when you are in a fasted state.
Our final set of walking hacks will help keep you motivated and excited about your walking routine. Use these walking hacks if you are struggling to stay motivated and keep missing your walking workouts.
13. Join a Walking Group
Walking with friends can help you stay committed to your routine.
One of the best ways to stay consistent in your walking routine is to seek social support. Join a walking group or schedule a meetup with friends. Knowing that someone is counting on you to show up can be great motivation to stick to your walking routine. Social support can help you stay motivated and consistent.
14. Join an Online Walking Community or Platform
A workout program can help you stay engaged with your workout.
If you don’t have the option to join a walking group, don’t worry. Instead, you can join an online walking community or sign up for a training platform.
There are online platforms where you can take walking workouts guided by expert coaches. These video classes provide entertainment and help you feel engaged with a community. We like classes from iFIT, JRNY, and Peloton for walking.
Joining a walking group or training platform can help you decide what type of workout you should do. It’s a great way for beginners to gain more confidence in planning their walks.
15. Track Your Progress
Planning and recording your workouts can help you determine the effectiveness of your training plan.
Track your walks over time, whether you use an old school notebook or a fitness tracker. An essential part of a fitness plan is ensuring that your workouts are progressing over time. Chart your workout time, distance, speed, and incline to track whether you are able to tackle harder challenges as your fitness improves.
As a bonus, add a key workout, such as intervals or hills, that you can use to gauge your fitness. Progress could be sustaining a faster speed or managing a steeper incline. By tracking your workouts, you can compare each time you do this key workout to previous attempts.
Conclusion
My goal with this post was to give you concrete and actionable tips for transforming your walks. While some of these “hacks” may seem like common sense, it can be important to go back to the basics or reevaluate what simple things are missing from your walking workouts. For example, I tend to neglect the incline function on my treadmill.
Use these hacks to improve your walks and to keep them from growing stale!
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