Walking is one of the best forms of aerobic exercise, though it is often overlooked. With just a good pair of supportive shoes, walking is accessible and has a low barrier of entry for anyone looking to start a fitness routine or add more physical activity to their daily lives.
Plus, everyone knows how to walk, which removes any intimidating or expensive classes or guidance from a personal trainer to get started.
However, walking workouts can get monotonous and may not feel purpose-driven or progressive, particularly over time or for individuals who have a higher level of fitness and are looking to get stronger, build more muscle, lose weight or improve other markers of health.
This is where walking workouts can come into play. Although there are dozens (if not hundreds!) of power walking workouts, treadmill walking workouts and other cardio walking routines to choose from, the 6-6-6 walking workout is one of the current popular walking workouts making its way around social media.
Moreover, unlike some of the other TikTok fitness videos and walking workout trends, the 6-6-6 walking workout meets overall physical activity guidelines in a sustainable way. This means that you can jump on board with the 6-6-6 walking challenge and know that you’re building sustainable exercise habits that can improve your overall health
Excited to get started? Keep reading for our complete guide to the 6-6-6 walking workout plan.
What is the 6-6-6 Walking Challenge?
If you Google “6-6-6 walking challenge” or “6-6-6 walking workout,” you’ll likely come across one of two different walking routines. This is because there seems to be two variations of the 6-6-6 walking program.
Like many fitness trends, the genesis of the 6-6-6 walking program isn’t entirely clear, and the secondary routine was likely spawned as an alternative version for those with limited time or lower levels of fitness. This is because the most popular format for the 6-6-6 walking plan is to walk for 60 minutes at 6:00 a.m. and 60 minutes at 6:00 p.m. every day. Each walk should also include a 6-minute warm up and 6-minute cool down before and after the 60-minute session, respectively.
Thus, this of course entails over two hours of walking per day or a total of 144 minutes, which is a significant time commitment and can be a non-starter for beginners. After all, if you are primarily sedentary, jumping into walking for more than 2 hours every day can feel wholly intimidating—if not impossible—with a busy schedule and poor fitness.
Therefore, the alternative 6-6-6 walking workout plan is a more approachable option that entails walking for 6 minutes, six times per day six times a week. This equates to walking 36 minutes a day, six times a week, for a total of 216 minutes of walking per week. That can still sound like quite a lot for beginners, but it is actually a perfect amount of weekly physical activity minutes and more doable for busy individuals and beginners.
In this article, we will discuss both versions of the 6-6-6 walking workout, but the emphasis will be on the former—the two daily 60-minute walks (one at 6 a.m. and one at 6 p.m.), as this is the more common iteration. That said, many of the same benefits carry over to the other 6-6-6 walking challenge, and we will try to point out key places where benefits or tips for the 6-6-6 walking plans diverge.
6-6-6 Walking Challenge Benefits
Walking is a fantastic form of exercise. Here are some of the top physical and mental health benefits of the 6-6-6 walking workout program:
- Increasing your lifespan and lowering the risk of all-cause mortality
- Decreasing the risk of chronic diseases
- Improving cardiovascular health
- Lowering blood pressure and cholesterol
- Helping burn calories to support healthy weight management
- Improving balance and stability
- Decreasing the risk of joint injuries, as walking is a low-impact form of exercise relative to running
- Improving aerobic fitness
- Decreasing chronic pain
- Supporting mental health and wellbeing and boosting your mood
In addition to the aforementioned benefits of the 6-6-6 walking workouts, another key benefit of this routine is that it meets the minimum physical activity guidelines for adults set forth by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Heart Association.
These guidelines suggest that adults should aim to accommodate 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise per week to reduce the risk of lifestyle diseases.
Even the pared-back 6-6-6 walking program for beginners, which involves walking for 6 minutes six times a day (36 minutes) for six days a week will allow you to achieve the recommendations for aerobic exercise.
Therefore, committing to the 6-6-6 walking regime is a great way to improve your fitness and health while reducing the risk of chronic disease.
Tips for Getting Started
Starting any type of new exercise routine can be challenging, particularly if you are a beginner or have been sedentary for quite some time. The good news about the 6-6-6 walking workout program is that it is beginner-friendly in the sense that it doesn’t require expensive equipment or exercise classes. All you need is a supportive and comfortable pair of walking shoes and a safe place to walk. You can even start on a treadmill or complete all of your walks indoors if that works better for you.
That said, the full 6-6-6 walking workout protocol with the two daily 60-minute walks (one in the morning and one in the evening) may be too intense for a beginner. Take your time building up to walking an hour at a time, let alone twice a day! Start with the 6-minute walks 2-3 times a day and add another 6-minute walk every day or every other day as your body allows until you are doing six. Then, consider consolidating into two or three walks a day that are longer in duration.
Depending on your fitness level, age and schedule, you might try to add 5-10 minutes to each walk per week until you can comfortably walk for an hour twice a day.
Remember, some walking is always better than no walking, so even if you do not have time in your schedule to do the full 6-6-6 walking routine, do what you can and modify the protocol to work for you. You don’t have to follow any fitness routine to a T to get most, if not all, of the health benefits.
Lastly, consider wearing a heart rate monitor or fitness watch that can keep track of your heart rate and step count during your walks. These devices can be motivating and will also help you determine how vigorous you are exercising. After your walking workouts, refuel with a protein-rich snack and drink plenty of water. If you sweat a lot, consider an electrolyte replacement beverage.
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The post From Stroll to Strong: How the 6-6-6 Walking Challenge Builds You Up first appeared on The Upside by Vitacost.com.