Wanna know a secret? Well we’ve got a doozy. It’s the hot new workout taking the world by storm — it’s simple, low impact, totally effective, and anybody can do it. It’s practiced by celebrities, influencers, and fitness trainers…also, toddlers and grandparents and mailmen and pretty much everyone else on the planet. 

We’re talking about walking, of course!  Yeah ok, maybe it’s not such a doozy after all. But you know, the answers to life’s most important questions often appear right under your nose. And sometimes, right under your toes.

Because it turns out that walking in all its forms — from power-striding to the new 12-3-30 workout (which we talk more about below) — happens to be one of the most effective long-term fitness strategies ever!

And because so many people overlook the simple stroll for bigger, shinier, more expensive fitness practices, the unmatched benefits of walking remain kind of a secret (albeit one of the worst kept ones). So strap on those sneaks and snag those headphones, because we’re going to traverse the amazing advantages that walking brings. Let’s step to it!

The Health Benefits of Walking

Elevated Mood: Turns out that when you hit the trail, the sidewalk, the hike, or even the treadmill, walking has been shown to help lower anxiety, reduce depression, and elevate your spirits. 

Weight Control: Walking is an amazingly beneficial way to maintain your weight and even lose it, when combined with a healthy diet. The fact is, compared to more vigorous forms of cardio, walking is far more efficient compared to the effort you need to put in.

Heart Health: Your heart will definitely be happy when you take part in a regular walking regimen. That’s because it’s been a proven way to lower blood pressure, control blood sugar, and reduce incidence of heart disease!

Immunity Boosting: Worried about yet another bout of the sniffles? Walking has been shown to reduce the chances of catching colds, as well as lessen the severity of symptoms if you do get one.

Bone Health: Because walking is a weight-bearing activity, it maintains your bones by challenging them in a controlled way. And for those with osteoporosis, walking actually slows bone loss down considerably. 

Joint Comfort: For those suffering from the creaks and cracks, walking is an excellent way to alleviate joint pain, especially for people with arthritis and fibromyalgia. 

Better Sleep: Consistent cardio of any kind, including walking, aids in getting those ZZZ’s. Take up walking, and you’ll fall asleep faster, stay asleep, and get much deeper into the REM cycles. 

A Better TDEE Calculator

When many of us are obsessively trying to lose weight, dial in our diets, and count every single calorie taken in and burned up, we are often using pretty shabby information. Because whenever you try and calculate your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), you may be estimating an activity level that is far off what you normally do in a day. But steps don’t lie! That means if you strap on a step tracker, you’ll have a much better idea of how many calories you’re burning.

How Long Should You Be Walking Daily?

Ok you’re ready, willing, and able to get to stepping. How long should you be walking for? It turns out that 30-minutes of brisk, uninterrupted walking can do wonders for your overall health. But if you don’t have that time to put away, just grab a tracker (you probably have one on your phone) and try to get in around 10,000 steps through all your daily movements. 

Fun & Effective Walking Variations

It may seem like walking is as easy as pie and as simple as syrup (we just made that up – feel free to run with it). But there are some effective walking variations that can step your game up. Here are a few we think are good to mention. 

Walking Backwards

Yes it may sound silly, but the benefits of walking backwards are insane: better quad work, stronger knees, and an effective tactic against runner’s knee and other common injuries. So next time you’re on a stroll, maybe flip it around and see the world in hindsight!

Incline Walking

Walking up hills can help tone and strengthen your legs, absolutely crush calories, build lean body mass (a.k.a. muscle) in the legs and shoulders and core, and improve cardiovascular health even beyond flat road walking, because it gets your heart rate much higher than flat road walking. So yeah, if you see a steep incline on your next walk, take it! 

The Trending Now “12-3-30” Walking Program 

Now if you know us at Studio SWEAT onDemand (and at this point we hope you do), you know that we’re always weary of the “next hot fitness craze”. Especially those that go viral with little to no scientific backing. So that’s why we wanna tread carefully (get it!) around the 12-3-30 workout. It goes a little something like this: walk at a 12% incline, speed of 3mph, and go for 30 minutes. Plus, a 5-minute flat-road warm up as well as the same for a cool-down after the power climb.

On its face, we’re gonna go ahead and say that 12-3-30 is absolutely fantastic, and everyone should try it! With one kinda important caveat — it’s not a miracle maker. 

The 12-3-30 workout was created by fitness influencer Lauren Giraldo a couple years ago, and quickly gained steam when she claimed that it helped her lose 30 pounds. To be clear, when we did the exact math on that, we figured that, given her size, age, fitness level, and athletic ability, Lauren would probably need around 7 months to see that change if she were only eating maintenance calories.

Don’t get us wrong, to lose 30 pounds in 7 month is amazing, especially since she did it in such a sustainable fashion, but IMO you can’t (or shouldn’t) claim to lose 30 pounds without adding a little more detail behind the claim. Like, “This was combined with a nutritional program,” or by adding the timeline it took to get there.   

So our final take home point on this is, do the workout because it’s REALLY awesome (I especially like the incline part because it really helps build strength and increases the heart rate), but if you’re looking for fast, miraculous weight loss (which is almost always gonna end in failure), just know that’s not going to happen with walking alone. So, consider an R.D. approved nutritional program if you do want to speed up the weight loss process some, or just remember that the tortoise usually wins the race. 

Final Thoughts…

Well we hope we’ve convinced you to get in those steps, every single day. We hope you start hopping up stairs, taking the scenic route at the park, and basically getting up and moving as much as you can. And if you want some guidance from the pros, be sure to sign up for a 7-Day Free Trial with Studio SWEAT onDemand. We’ve got tons of online tread workouts that’ll get you off your keister and into sweatville in no time! Add to that, we also offer Indoor Cycling, Yoga, Pilates, Bootcamp, Body-Sculpting, Kickboxing, and so much more!

So don’t wait – sign up today, and step to it!