Challenge: Walking for Gains
Did you know that walking every day can help you to lose weight and build muscle more effectively? That’s right!
As the weather warms up, I’d like to challenge you to get outside and take a brisk walk every day for 30 minutes. Check in each day that you go for a walk by posting a selfie or screenshot of your fitness tracker in the #daily-walk-challenge channel in the Coaching Corner Discord server (under the category “Challenges”).
If you check in every day during the month of April, you’ll win a free 4-week meal plan 🙌
Why are we doing this challenge?
Walking is one of the easiest ways to get your body moving & burning calories. It’s also a great way to improve your cardiovascular health, overall fitness, and mental health.
Remember that our bodies are built for movement. For most of human history, our ancient ancestors walked about 5 miles (about 10,000 steps) on an average day. They also were much more active than us–with daily activities that included hunting and gathering food.[1]
In the modern world, our bodies don’t get nearly as much exercise, which can lead to all kinds of health problems (including weight gain, cardiovascular illness, and mental illness).
When we get up and move for at least 30 minutes every day, however, we can improve our physical and mental health outcomes.
How can walking improve your health & wellness?
First off, walking is a low-impact form of exercise that can help to burn calories. Walking at a brisk pace gets your big muscle groups working, which increasing your heart rate and boosts the metabolism — allowing you to use up more energy throughout the day even after you finish your walk. And since it doesn't require any fancy equipment or expensive gym memberships, you can do it any time, anywhere.
Second, walking is a great way to help your body to build more muscle. Cardiovascular exercise improves the effectiveness of your heart to pump oxygen and nutrients to your muscles while you’re working out. The stronger your heart, the more you’ll be able to push during high-volume or high-intensity sets. You’ll also be able to recover faster and more effectively. Also, because walking is gentle and low-impact, it puts less stress on your body, making it easier to recover from than high-impact or high-intensity cardio (like running, HIIT, or plyometrics). This will allow you to push yourself extra in your resistance training workouts to maximize your muscle gains.
Lastly, walking is great for reducing stress levels. Not only does it release “happy hormones” like endorphins and dopamine,[2] but it also is a great activity for bilateral stimulation in the brain. Bilateral stimulation is a key technique used in EMDR therapy for alleviating symptoms of stress, anxiety, PTSD, and trauma. It engages both sides of the brain in roughly equal intervals, which helps to calm the nervous system and return the body to a more relaxed state. Other types of bilateral stimulation techniques include somatic exercises and EMDR music. This type of therapy is recognized by the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association as one of the fastest, most effective ways to regulate the nervous system and calm distress. You can learn more about EMDR therapy on the EMDR Research Foundation website.[3, 4, 5]
As you can see, walking has a ton of benefits to fitness & wellness. So let’s get out there and walk every day this coming month!
Challenge: Get out and walk for 30 minutes each day during April.
You can use a pedometer, fitness tracker, smart watch, or even your smartphone to track your walks or the amount of steps you complete every day.
At the end of your walk, snap a selfie picture or take a screenshot of your fitness tracker and share it in #daily-walk-challenge channel in the Coaching Corner Discord Server (under the category “Challenges”). If you’re one of my 1-on-1 coaching clients, you can also take a snapshot of your Trainerize app after logging your walk 😉
If you don’t have somewhere outside that you can walk, a treadmill will do just fine.
You don’t have to participate in the community to complete this challenge!
But if you’d like to win a free 4-week meal plan you’ll need to check in every day during the month of April in the Discord 🙌
I can’t wait to see your check-ins! You’ve got a couple of days to prepare before the challenge officially starts on April 1st, but feel free to go ahead and send a message in the #daily-walk-challenge channel saying “Challenge accepted!” to let me know you’re in 💪
About Jayd
Jayd Harrison is a personal trainer and content creator. She helps people to build muscle, burn fat, and clean up their diets with her online coaching programs and social media content. Check out some of Jayd’s coaching videos on Youtube, or join Jayd live on Twitch and follow on social media:
