You don’t need an hour to get fit—this beginner walking workout improves heart health in 15 minutes

When you are new to exercise, it’s tempting to put it off, whether because you lack confidence in what you’re doing or, you are apprehensive of what you expect to be an unpleasant experience.

This beginner walking workout is addresses both issues. It’s easy to follow, and you shouldn’t ever be so out of breath that you can’t talk.

It’s a ladder workout created by fitness coach Jesper Bjerling, founder of Swedish fitness equipment company Thunder Fitness. In a ladder workout, you alternate between working and resting, with the periods of work increasing with each round up to a certain point, then the periods of work decrease each round, as if you climbed up and down a ladder.

“The walking ladder format is useful because it gradually builds up the effort instead of going straight into a long interval of brisk walking,” says Bjerling.

“It can also feel easier psychologically, knowing that after the longest brisk section, the intervals will get shorter.”

Even though it’s just 15 minutes long, you can build stamina, improve fitness and support your heart health, in that time.

Getting outdoors can also improve your mood and mental wellbeing, making this a quick, accessible workout to fit into your lunch break or before work, although you can also perform it on a treadmill if you prefer.

The beginner walking workout

In this workout you will alternate between brisk and easy walking, gradually increasing the length of your brisk intervals before shortening them again.

“The brisk walking sections should feel clearly faster than a normal walking pace, but not so much that the person gets too out of breath,” says Bjerling. “The breathing should be heavier and you might get warmer. An easy way to judge the effort is to do the talk test—during the brisk intervals you should be able to talk fairly normally but not sing!”

As you walk, try to maintain an upright posture and keep your shoulders relaxed. “Focus on quicker steps rather than longer ones,” as you speed up says Bjerling.“ Your arms can help when walking at a faster pace, they should swing naturally.”

Bjerling says beginners can aim to do this walking workout two to three times a week.

“For most healthy people, a walking workout like this will be perfectly fine. But anyone with significant heart, breathing, balance, joint or mobility problems may need to modify it.

“If someone experiences symptoms such as chest pain, unusual shortness of breath, dizziness or other concerning symptoms during exercise, they should stop and seek medical advice.”

And like all good workouts, you begin with a warm-up and end with a cool-down.

Warm-up

• 2min easy walking

Main workout

• 1min brisk walking
• 1min easy walking
• 2min brisk walking
• 1min easy walking
• 3min brisk walking
• 1min easy walking
• 2min brisk walking

Cool-down

• 2min easy walking

How to make it easier: If three minutes of brisk walking feels too challenging, there are ways to adapt the workout.

“You could shorten the brisk sections,” says Bjerling. “For example, you could do 1 minute, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 1 minute 30 seconds of brisk walking instead.”

“Another way to adapt it is to increase the time of the easy walking sections. Instead of 1 minute, you could do 1 minute 30 seconds or 2 minutes. For a beginner, the most important thing is that the exercise is manageable rather than following the timing rules perfectly.

How to make it harder: When the workout feels too easy, you can make the brisk intervals longer. “The next step could be to add one or more sections, or decrease the length of the easy walking intervals,” he says. “I recommend changing one thing at a time instead of everything at once.”

Shop walking shoes

If you need to upgrade your footwear, consider these top picks from Fit&Well’s guide to the best walking shoes.

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