If you’re not a fan of the gym, don’t despair. One of the activities that is most recommended and above all good for health is walking (and it can be done wherever you want!)
If there’s one activity that everyone agrees on, it’s brisk walking. Whether interval, Nordic or even inclined, brisk walking allows you to maintain regular sporting activity.
It’s often difficult to want to lose weight but not like going to the gym, so for some people this means they won’t be able to do it. We must banish these injunctions, which are still all too present. Indeed, there are much gentler and less restrictive alternatives than the gym: walking.
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Irregular walking: the best way to boost your weight loss
In the United States, researchers embarked on a study involving 18 volunteers, men and women combined, with an average age of 24 years. Experts from the University of Massachusetts Amherst then invited the volunteers to walk on a treadmill at a steady pace for 5 minutes. This allowed them to determine that their speed was 1.2m per second or 4.3km per hour.
Secondly, the researchers had the volunteers walk with varying lengths of stride, without changing the walking speed. Through this experiment, it was noted that volunteers with an irregular walk (i.e. with more or less long strides) burned, on average, more calories than volunteers who walked regularly. An interesting discovery which allows us to realize that with irregular walking, alternating between long strides and smaller ones, it is possible to boost your metabolism and thus your weight loss.
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The benefits of irregular walking
American researchers did not hesitate to affirm that having an irregular walk would then accelerate your metabolism, and therefore your weight loss. “A 2.7% increase in step length variability would increase metabolic expenditure by 1.7%. Step length variability plays a modest, but significant, role in the metabolic expenditure of walking.”they concluded.
In fact, this means that if you want to optimize your walk, it is imperative to alternate your walk. So you have to take small steps, then bigger steps. Certainly, this may not be the most pleasant and obvious walk but it is important to remember that it is recommended to carry out “at least the equivalent of 30 minutes of brisk walking per day at least 5 days per week” to maintain regular physical activity that is good for your health. Above all, regular physical activity is recommended for a healthy lifestyle.
News Editor
A graduate of the Nice School of Journalism, I am 26 years old and I am from the South of France. Passionate about reading and sport, I am also a…