There’s nothing quite like a daily walk to help you clear your head, is there? Alongside all the physical benefits that come from moving your body, getting outside and breathing some fresh air can do wonders for your mental health. It’s a reminder that you don’t always need to do a hard, sweaty session in the gym to take care of your body – sometimes, a stroll around the block is all you really need. 

From improved circulation to pain relief and mental clarity, regular strolling really does pack a health and wellbeing punch. But to squeeze the very most out of every step, there are a few things you might want to try. Professor Nanette Mutrie, director of the physical activity for health research centre at the University of Edinburgh (and an avid walker), shares her top tips for hitting your daily step goal and getting the most out of every mile. 

If taking walking more seriously was one of your 2024 goals, then you might not necessarily know how far you walk in 20 minutes, how high your heart rate should be for cardio conditioning or how long it takes you to complete a 5,000 step walk. 

That’s where a fitness tracker can come in: “I think pedometers or any step counting app in your phone or a fitness tracker can help you to hit initial goals and to learn about how walking to the shops, taking the dog for an extra walk or parking further away from where you need to go can impact your health, heart rate and step count,” Mutrie says. 

However, she stresses that once you are in a rhythm of how much movement you and your body needs, it’s important to detach yourself from the numbers on the screen and only check back every so often to ensure that you are on track. “The whole point of walking is that it should be an enjoyable thing you can integrate into your lifestyle until you’re really not thinking too hard about how to do it,” Mutrie adds.

Research from the journal Nature highlights the impact that picking up the pace could have on your health, with data from over 400,000 people suggesting that a lifetime of brisk walking could lead to the equivalent of 16 years younger biological age by midlife. Previous studies have also shown that walking at a faster pace is linked to increased health benefits, including a reduced risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

How ‘fast’ you go is relative; what might be deemed as slow to one person is actually quite intense to another, for example, if they are less fit, have an injury or are older.

“Higher intensity exercise does have additional benefits, but only to a point,” says Mutrie. “A brisk pace is only better than a slow pace if you like doing it. If you don’t like fast walking and, as a result, stop doing it, you’ll get no benefits whatsoever.”

It’s also important to remember that current recommendations for activity in the UK stand at 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week. 

So, if you are heading out to walk for 30 minutes every evening, you’re probably hitting that goal easily – the only exception will be unless you are very fit already, as you’ll need to work a little harder to get your heart rate up. 

“There is evidence that using trekking poles adds to the amount of effort that walking takes because it uses our upper body muscles as well as our lower body,” says Mutrie. According to one piece of research by Bristol Nordic Walking, heart rate was up to 33 beats per minute higher when using poles, while the time taken to complete a half-mile circuit was over a minute faster.

Great if you’re into countryside walks, perhaps not so practical if you’re walking around your very concreted town. If that’s the case and you want to add resistance, you could try using handheld weights or ankle weights for resistance. And if you want to go even further, you could try rucking.

Joining a walking group is an amazing way to maximise the health benefits of your walk, says Mutrie. The social benefit of exercise is proven to help us hit our fitness goals, and being part of a team can “bring different challenges, help you build up your confidence in walking and improve your ability to do it,” Mutrie adds.

A lot of walking groups have had to halt their meetups during the coronavirus outbreak, so if that is impossible right now, simply try heading out with a friend or your household for some encouragement, chats or even some friendly competition. 

It might not surprise you to hear that walking uphill is tougher, but just why is that? Well, a 2017 study by King George’s Medical University suggested that walking uphill caused significantly more exertion than walking downhill due to the fact that uphill walking includes concentric muscle contractions (ie shortening the muscles). 

This puts a higher metabolic demand on the exercising muscles which therefore increased the stress on the cardiovascular system. 

A study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that listening to high-tempo music when exercising resulted in the highest heart rate and lowest perceived exertion, so the exercise feels like less effort but is more beneficial. And the type of exercise it proved best for was endurance-style training, such as walking. 

Of course, for others, more mindful, unplugged exercise works best – particularly when it comes to optimising the mental health benefits of our walks. “The bottom line is we’ve got to find ways to make walking pleasurable enough to keep doing it for our whole life. If music, an audiobook, a podcast or being alone with your own thoughts is the way to do that, then great,” says Mutrie. 

Turns out, 10,000 steps a day is more of an advertising tool than scientifically sound advice. In fact, the actual research suggests that the health benefits of walking actually plateau around 7,500 steps a day, so don’t stress over hitting five figure digits. 

If walking is purely a mental health boosting sport for you, listen up: a Japanese study from 2015, conducted with young women, found that walking in a forest rather than an urban environment was associated with significantly higher parasympathetic nervous activity. Women were found to feel less anxious or stressed after a sojourn outside. 

However, if you can’t get outside because the weather’s awful, you’re stuck indoors with kids or you don’t have much time between meetings, then Mutrie says you can still reap all the benefits of walking from stepping indoors or using a treadmill to walk. “Any movement, even if it’s moving about the house, is better than no movement.” 

Want to put these tips to the test? Bring your friends and join us for a scenic half-marathon hike at the Strong Women Trek in Surrey Hills on Saturday 20 July. It’s the perfect way to tick off a mini-milestone in 2024 while enjoying a day of walking, fresh air and fun. Book your place here.

Images: Getty