The best walking workouts for gentle exercise

A picture of a woman jogging in the park with a bottle of water (iStock)

It’s easy to take walking for granted as a form of exercise. After all, it’s how we move around in the world every day, so it can be hard to believe it’ll knock off pounds. But research shows that walking is a surprisingly strong health and fitness strategy. It matters how you walk, though. A study in Journal of Applied Physiology found that walking quickly with hand and ankle weights was comparable to slow running. And research from the University of Virginia revealed that mixing short, fast walks with longer, more leisurely ones was an effective way for obese women to lose belly fat.

Walking can even help prevent disease. A study in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology showed that walking at a decent clip reduced participants’ risk of developing high blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels as much as running.

It’s clear that our bodies were made to walk, but there’s more than one way to get the most out of those daily steps. We spoke to three experts with different approaches so you can choose the right method for you. Whether you’re time-pressed or want to ease into running, our experts have got you covered.

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The celebrity trainer: David Kirsch
Kirsch, who has trained the likes of Jennifer Lopez and Kate Upton, believes even the fittest people can benefit from walking more. "From a purely physiological standpoint, walking raises your heart rate and burns calories," he says. "But it’s also a great way to increase your mind-body connection, focus on your breath, spend time in nature, meditate, and de-stress."

David Kirsch's go-to walking workout: For beginners, it’s all about working up to 10,000 steps a day, says Kirsch. That’s the preset daily goal on most fitness trackers because it’s considered a good target for heart health and weight maintenance. But after you’ve mastered that, challenge yourself to hit 15,000 to 25,000 daily steps. "Ten thousand should become the bare minimum," he says. To amp up the intensity of your walks, try a hilly landscape or wear two- to three-pound ankle and hand weights. You can also incorporate some toning exercises every few minutes, like jumping jacks, walking lunges, squats, or squat jumps, suggests Kirsch. Adding these moves in intervals will help you build muscle, improve heart health, and increase endurance. "Walking is so good for you," he says. "It’s a great start and supplement to any wellness program."

"Walking is one of the best tools for weight maintenance," says Dr. Rothberg, director of the University of Michigan’s Weight Management Clinic. "It’s aerobic, it engages some of the biggest muscles, and it’s feasible for most people."

Dr. Rothberg's go-to walking workout: To maintain a healthy weight, Dr. Rothberg recommends walking for at least 30 minutes five days a week. Some good news: You don’t have to log a half hour all at once. "You can do your 30 minutes in 10-minute bouts throughout the day," she says, "and those add up." Plus, when you walk for shorter periods, you can generally go at a faster speed, which may be even better for you than walking slowly for 30 minutes straight, since more vigorous activities can help increase your overall fitness level. And even lower-intensity exercises like fast-paced walking can help burn some of the body’s stored fat. Walking in chunks can give you little boosts of confidence to keep you motivated, too. "Whether it’s parking farther away or walking to meet a colleague, you get a sense of accomplishment," she says. "It’s these little successes that end up establishing good habits."

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The running coach: Jeff Galloway
Galloway is the creator of the Run Walk Run training method, which helps walkers and longtime runners alike stay in shape and prep for races. Adding running intervals to your walks can help you burn more calories, and running has been shown to boost appetite-suppressing hormones, notes Galloway. Plus, easing into running like this allows you "to go farther while feeling better and avoiding injury," he says.

Jeff Galloway's go-to walking workout: To introduce faster segments into your walks, start by jogging for 5 to 10 seconds per minute for 10 minutes, gradually working your way up to 30 minutes. Once you’ve conquered that goal, begin adding longer periods of jogging until you can jog for 30 seconds per minute for 30 minutes. Eventually, you can build up to shorter walk breaks—for example, walking for 30 seconds and running for 60. This is an excellent way to train for a 5K or even longer race, says Galloway. (For regular runners looking to add in strategic walking breaks, Galloway suggests alternating 90 seconds of running and 30 seconds of walking if you run a 10-minute mile on average. If you average a 12-minute mile, try alternating 60 seconds of running and 30 seconds of walking.)

This article originally appeared on Health.com.