Walking is a great way to get cardiovascular exercise, I want to show you or ways of increasing your calorie burning capability while walking on either a treadmill or outdoors.

First, increasing the speed of your walk.

There are two ways to speed up your walk, one by lengthening your stride, and a second by increasing the number of steps you take within the same period of time.

We want to focus on the latter, there are benefits to lengthening your stride, but as far as burning more calories, were sticking to increasing the number of steps.

Consciously try to speed up your walk by moving faster, when you move faster you will burn more calories, you notice this already in the difference between your normal pace versus your exercise walking pace. So we want to kick it up a notch, and go just a little bit faster, try to speed up your pace by 10 seconds every mile, just that small change will increase the number of calories you’re burning her walk.

The easiest way to quicken your stride is by focusing on quickening your arm movement. When you move your arms faster, your legs will follow, and not change your gait.

Next we want to talk about adding an incline, or walking uphill. Now in Florida we do not have many hills, so we have to either walk up a bridge, or use a treadmill.

If you are using a treadmill incline between four and 7% grade, instead of walking flat, if you walk this incline, you will burn more calories.

There is an added benefit to walking with an incline, it actually takes the pressure off your knee joint.

The grade of the incline acts as a buffer, preventing stomping and allowing for a gradual decline to the lowest position.

So if you have knee problems, and you enjoy walking, if you walk on an incline, your knees will hurt less, and you will actually build more muscle around the joint helping your needs further.

Make sure you swing your arms

Power walking was a big deal 15 years ago, it still has its place today.

When you swing your arms you are incorporating your upper body, involving more muscle groups to the exercise, more muscle groups, mean more calories being.

Do you want to kick it up even more, try carrying some light weight in your hands as well, that will increase the intensity even more, and allow for make more calorie burning.

Finally interval training, walking your normal pace for five minutes, and then increase the pace for one minute, this will elevate your heart rate, so it’s actually helping you cardiovascular early, and with the elevated heart rate, you will burn more calories.

Try anyone or all for of these ways to increase your intensity for cardiovascular walking, and you will burn more calories, and you will lose weight, and you will be healthier.