One of life’s simple pleasures is having a nice, peaceful walk outside. It is a great stress reliever, especially after a long day. There is something about tuning everything out and willing your body to take one step at a time.

For beginners, walking is a base workout. Everything starts with the first step. Newbies usually try the treadmill first before they experiment on levels of running. It is the most nonintimidating piece of equipment because it gives a great workout, and is not too embarrassing to use.

Fitness enthusiasts, however, may not consider walking a workout. They treat it as a warmup and assume that it does not work if you want to burn fat and lose weight. Since it does not put a strain or pressure on specific muscle groups, many experienced gymgoers consider walking a light-intensity choice.

Fortunately, science has proven that walking is indeed a great workout. It can slowly get you started with your fitness plan. However, some people might not see the results they want just by walking.

A 10-minute leisurely walk is great to stretch your legs and take a break from monotonous work-from-home activities. Slow walking can even be a warmup to more difficult workouts. But when done at different intensities and durations, people realize that walking can also help you lose weight.

At least 30 minutes of brisk walking can help you burn calories, which of course, helps you lose weight. The idea is to walk at a more vigorous intensity for a longer period to burn more calories. Just like in any other workout, the higher the intensity and the longer you sustain it, the more calories you burn.

There is a misconception that cardio, like walking, on its own, will give you the “toned” or more defined body you see on television. Cardio can help you burn fat, but will usually leave you “soft” because it does not focus on muscular development as much as weight training does. To lose weight and “tone” your body, a full workout plan must be laid out to simultaneously target your muscle groups.

The key to successfully working out by walking is to incorporate it into your routine. By pairing it with resistance training activities, including body-weight workouts and weight training, you will be able to see results faster.

How to get started

Getting started with walking is, as you might have guessed, as easy as ABC.

Start with a stretch. Do a quick leg, arm, neck and back stretch to make sure your body is warmed up for any activity.

Brisk walk for 30 minutes. You can set different goals for your brisk walk. You can set a number of steps you want per minute or how high your heart rate should be while walking. There are various wearable tracking devices you can get to make it easier for you to log in details. Whenever you feel out of breath, take a minute to drop your intensity and catch your breath before starting again.

Remember to hydrate and replenish. For beginners, making sure you are hydrated, and breathing properly is important. Newbies usually forget how to breathe properly and may end up feeling dizzy because of lack of oxygen. This may also be a great time to see if you need some sustenance.

Build strength and endurance. After your 30-minute brisk walk, assess if you can go farther. Intermediate walking includes long endurance walks that can last for an hour or more with fewer interval breaks. This will allow you to burn more calories without straining yourself. This will also allow you to gauge your strength and how you want to build your endurance during your walks.

Build a workout plan. You can start adding resistance training exercises to develop muscles groups, and include a variety of cardio to help you stay on course and not get bored with the routine.

Walking is one of the most useful workouts out there. What is great about it is its simplicity. Anyone can pick it up at any time and can do it at whatever pace they may be comfortable in.

As with any other workout, walking will ultimately not work if not paired with a healthy diet and lifestyle. If there is no balance among all three, don’t expect changes any time soon. It is impossible to outwalk—even outrun—a bad diet.

Getting started with the simplest of workouts goes a long way in getting you to your fitness goal. So, for now, put your sneakers on and get walking! —CONTRIBUTED INQ

The author is CEO of Anytime Fitness Asia.