1. Tone your tummy
Want to tone your waist while you walk? Simple! With a straight back, imagine you are trying to pull your ribcage up and away from your pelvis to help you pull in your tummy. This engages deeper core muscles and helps to improve your posture. Add a stomach crunch to your walk by raising your arms up over your head, then step forward, bringing your knee up high and twisting your opposite elbow towards it, while keeping your back straight.
2. Do some walking lunges
Adding lunges to your walk helps to work your bottom, thighs, calves and tummy muscles, warms up your legs and stretches your hips flexors, which can become tight when walking long distances. Step forward and, as your front foot hits the ground, bend your knees until your back knee is just above the ground. Push off with your back foot and repeat the lunge on the opposite leg. Do four sets of 10 during your walk.
3. Add an incline
Walking up hills or stairs engages your bottom, thigh and calf muscles and burns more calories than walking on flat ground. In fact, stair walking can burn the same amount of calories as running! If you can’t find a long flight of stairs, try increasing in intervals by walking up two steps, then back to the bottom, then up three steps and back, and so on until you’ve done the whole flight. It’s a simple way to clock up your steps at home, too.