The Easiest Exercise Every Lifter Should Do

I’m not going to talk about how walking can improve cardiovascular health and improve insulin sensitivity, although it does both. Instead, I want to list a few ways you can supplement and even enhance your gym workouts:

1 fat loss

In general, I have been dismissive of the use exercise as a means of fat loss. It’s just that you have to work out a lot to make up for that 500-calorie bun you gave yourself as a reward for yesterday’s workout.

Walking, however, is something you can do every day for a relatively long time without losing your mind. The same cannot be said for most other fat burning techniques, for example, combat ropesburpees, kettlebell swings, etc., which can normally only be sustained for a few minutes and require a large dose of willpower to initiate.

A good, mostly fast Fartlek walk can burn 400 calories an hour, more if you’re a big guy, and that’s significant. Burning that many calories at least three to four times a week will equate to visible results in as little as a month. And the kicker? That fat loss will likely occur without any muscle loss.

2 help with recovery

Walking does not increase the physiological stress imposed by regular weight training. Equally important, it facilitates recovery by increasing blood flow. There is even evidence to suggest that it has a small “spinal flossing” effect, which is a supposed therapeutic gliding of the spinal cord and major nerves. In other words, it’s like giving the Tin Man oil.

3 Develop physical fitness and work capacity

Lifters generally work at high intensities for short periods (the phosphagen energy system). Let’s say there’s a room full of fat women attending a Noom meeting in a basement and they’re suddenly threatened by a raging flood. A typical lifter would be able to lift a few of them to the safety of higher ground, but that lifter would probably fail if he had to lift an entire room full of fat ladies. They would all drown. See you later fat ladies.

But a program that involves very fast walking, especially if you’re lucky enough to live in an area with some hills, can actually improve your V02 max to a level that will boost any high-intensity training session.

4 help repair damaged back

I used to have back problems. When I got out of bed, I looked like Quasimodo scouring the floor for loose change. No more. for walking

I’m not very well versed in orthopedic matters, so I’ll let T Nation contributor Dr. John Rusin explain:

“The key muscle players in chronic low back pain are the quadratus lumborum (QL) and the psoas (muscles located in the back and front of the spine). These are deep stabilizers responsible for integrating the lumbar spine with the pelvic complex and hip These two synergistic muscles are the main stabilizers and actually act as somatosensory organs as well as motor and mechanical stabilizers.

“As low back pain sets in for whatever reason, the deep stabilizers typically rise, either becoming functionally tight or not activating to the point of smooth, sequenced function.

“Through research and real-world studies with athletes, walking has been shown to be a functional remedy for these two muscle groups. During the gait cycle, the psoas and QL on opposite sides of the body interact and work together to that you walk normally Your body will find a way to coordinate this movement, keep you upright and moving.

“Improving your gait, finding optimal heel strikes, foot patterns and quality control is how we get you to reap the vast benefits of walking to get rid of that nagging lower back pain.”

So yeah, what he said.

5 Works on an empty stomach

I’m not a big fan of fasted training because when I go too hard, my blood sugar drops, I see birdies, I fall, and I hit my head on a 100-pound kettlebell. Still, if I had to practice fasted training, I’d use walking. It’s not too strenuous and you won’t burn muscle, which is often a concern with fasted training.

6 Makes your brain work better

I don’t know if there are any studies on it, but walking clears the cobwebs and makes my brain work better. Maybe it’s the increased blood flow, or maybe it’s just turning away from the computer screens and knocking on the door and the noisy neighbors and the wife yelling, “Help me, help me, my hair is on fire,” or some other selfish shit, but i always get great ideas while walking.