Brisk Walking: Any Time, Anywhere

Brisk walking is no doubt the most convenient aerobic exercise there is. Make it part of your daily routine, keeping it as easy or as challenging as you like.

A man in a suit walking briskly along a city street, with motion blur suggesting a long exposure.

Brisk walking is a non-performative and highly accessible form of exercise. There’s no need for a change of clothes, nor a gym membership.

It’s ideal if you’re seeking an effective exercise routine but don’t have time for the hassle of structured fitness training.

What Is Brisk Walking?

Walking gently or strolling is movement. Walking briskly enough to challenge the cardiovascular system is aerobic exercise. But the speed and duration necessary to achieve this varies from person to person.

A brisk walking pace is generally around 3 to 4 mph (5 to 6.5 km/h). Let your body tell you if you’re moving fast enough.

If a walk is brisk, your breathing becomes noticeably harder, but you are still able to speak. If conversation becomes difficult, you’ve sped up to something more like a power walk.

Is a Daily Walk Sufficient?

The CDC advises adults to accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week, such as brisk walking. Jogging is an alternative, but not as gentle on the joints and usually needs a change of clothes. You could also alternate walking and jogging.

Split this time into sessions; five days of 30 minutes each is a balanced example. But treat this as a benchmark rather than a stipulation. Build up duration as your fitness increases.

If you want to follow the CDC’s muscle-strengthening guideline as well for a more holistic approach, two additional sessions at home with a power twister and ab roller would count toward this. Instead of an ab roller, planking is another effective way of strengthening the core.

You don’t have to go to the gym if your only goal is to stay fit.

If it’s to lose weight, an average 200 lb man burns 380–440 calories per hour during a brisk walk. That’s 190–220 calories per 30-minute session. It does, however, depend on total body mass: the heavier you are, the more calories you burn.

How to Fit Brisk Walking into Your Daily Routine

From Incidental Movement to Exercise

Non-exercise activity thermogenesis, better known as NEAT, is the energy we expend on everyday tasks, like household chores, climbing stairs, fidgeting, and walking. These are incidental movements.

But if you walk briskly enough, that movement becomes a meaningful aerobic exercise. Basically, it’s turning non-exercise into exercise during the time you would have spent walking anyway. Because it’s built into your daily routine, there’s no need to make extra time for it.

The one practical restriction on when you choose to walk is other people. Walking with somebody who has a slower pace forces you to adapt to it or leave them behind. Keeping up a conversation can also hold you back. It may be best to walk when you can do so alone.

Opportunities to Walk Briskly

If you can set aside more time, creating new walking opportunities is easy.

Leave the car in the garage: walk instead, whether it’s to your job, the store, or the post office.
Walk part of your journey: park the car further away from your destination, or get off public transport one or two stops earlier.
Increase your pace in the workplace: walk briskly between your desk and the copier, water cooler, coffee machine, or cafeteria.
Use part of your lunch break: take a 10-minute walk around the block, which can also clear your head of pre-lunch stress.
Take the longest route: if you have time, walk the long way round instead of taking a shortcut.
Get out of the elevator early: take the stairs for the remaining floors—strictly speaking, this is not brisk walking, but a convenient burst of more strenuous aerobic activity.
Go for a brisk walk after work to wind down: do this whenever you have a free moment or could use some fresh air.

A More Demanding Brisk Walk

Once you’re in the habit of walking, you may find it increasingly easy. If so, up your game and make it more demanding.

Keep Your Pace

Instead of slowing down, keep your pace when walking uphill.

If it’s steep enough, it should cause you to be out of breath, indicating that your heart and lungs are working harder. Over time, this improves cardiovascular fitness.

Gradients also strengthen muscles: you should feel the strain in your thighs.

Carry Weight

As previously mentioned, the heavier you are, the more calories you burn. Therefore, add weight by carrying something.

It could take the form of a laptop bag or, better still, groceries on your way home from the market. A heavy bag in each hand is not unlike the farmer’s carry exercise, a full-body activity, usually performed with dumbbells or kettlebells. Walking with added weight makes your legs work harder, too.

Take Advantage of Environmental Conditions

The more difficult the ground or weather, the more challenging a brisk walk becomes.

Battling a strong wind elevates cardiovascular exertion. To take full advantage of it, never lose pace.
Walking through deep snow engages the calves, thighs, and hips.
A sandy beach works the calves, ankles, and feet due to the surface giving way beneath you.
Mud puts strain on the calves, thighs, and glutes, while forcing you to concentrate on balance.
Loose gravel works the feet, ankles, and lower legs due to surface instability.
The uneven ground of the woods or rocky terrain taxes the ankles, thighs, and glutes, as well as smaller stabilizing muscles.

Negative-Heel Shoes

It would probably be fair to say that the majority of us don’t encounter demanding weather or terrain daily. To compensate, try negative-heel shoes. You may have heard of the somewhat orthopedic-looking Kalsø Earth Shoe, an idea conceived in the late 1950s featuring a raised sole and lower heel.

This alters your center of gravity, creating an effect similar to walking uphill or on sand.

Nowadays, negative-heel shoes are available in more inconspicuous designs, including sneakers that appear much like ordinary athletic shoes.

Brisk walking may not look like much of a workout, but that’s precisely the point. You don’t need special clothes, a gym membership, or an hour carved out of your day. Make your ordinary walking a little faster, take advantage of opportunities that arise, and increase the challenge when you feel like it. Before long, you may even find yourself enjoying it.