5 ways to mix up your walk/runs.
One of my super powers is thinking outside the box. Sometimes my family gets annoyed at my “but what about this?” “or have you tried this?” questions, but I think they’re pleasantly astonished with my macgyver-esque way of going about everyday problems.
So, when it comes to fitness- this is an easily transferrable power.
When I hear people say they dread going on walks or runs, I encourage a different perspective. I love offering up these alternatives to how we approach ‘going on a jog or walk”
Before I start typing out the list that I made up on my kids’ notepad, I want you to imagine with me how children ‘run’
They don’t tell you “I can’t run until I have the right shoes mom” or “I have to go on a 20 minute run to hit my rings”
And they certainly don’t do it in a straight line (at least my kid doesn’t)
They do so sporadically, and haphazardly, and that’s what I want to bring you with this list. So here are some ideas to spice up your next walk, jog or run. (side note: I will use walk jog or run inter changably, please fit in whatever form you currently tolerate or enjoy most)
1.) PICK OUT LANDMARKS
Whether you’re walking city streets or a forest, there are plenty of landmarks to choose from to make up some fun walk/run splits.
Some of my more recent ones include street lights, city blocks and picking out a tree in the distance.
When I start out my run, I will say, “I will walk to two street lights and to jog one” and I’ll do that for an allotted amount of time (let’s say 15-20minutes)
It keeps me focused on the next step and gamify’s is a bit which I always enjoy. You can do this with a tree in the distance, “I will walk briskly to that tree, and then walk slower to the next.” The landmarks you choose will vary depending on the landscape around you. I would love to hear the ones you have in your neck of the woods.
2.) VARY SPLIT TIMES:
Let’s say your goal is to walk/jog for 15 minutes. There are about a zillion ways you can use intervals in this specific set of time, but I’ll give you a few.
Maybe you walk for 30 seconds and jog for 30 seconds until your time is up?
Maybe you alternate walking for 3 minutes, then jogging for 3 minutes?
Maybe you sprint for 10” jog for 30” and walk for 20” (as you can tell, I really like making the minute even)
3.) PICK A PLAYLIST:
I’m a huge song person and my playlist is still stuck in the 2000s era, but sometimes when I’m not feeling super motivated to go for a walk/run but I know my mental health needs it, I’ll tell myself “walk for 3 songs”
The average length of of song makes this about 10 minute walk, and you can really choose any amount of songs, but the fun aspect of this is focusing your attention on something else. Instead of “going for a run” the goal is “getting outside and listening to these 3 songs”
Another way that I like to incorporate music into my jogs is by picking up the tempo (speed) which varies from person to person) during the chorus and slowing it down during the verse. This can also be done vice versa, or maybe walking during the intro of the song, jogging during the verses and then running during the chorus. Again, endless opportunities.
4.) VARY TEMPOS:
Instead of saying “i’m going for a run” I want you to pick out 6 different tempos (or speeds).
I will use my ‘go -to’ tempos as an example.
I have: “slow walk” “walk” “brisk walk” “speed walk” “light jog” “jog” “quick jog” “run” and “sprint” (did I say 6, maybe I meant 9?)
And let’s say running isn’t in the cards for you in this season, there are plenty of tempos for walking too. With these options, I will use either landmarks or time to vary the tempos.
I will walk one city block, and then speed walk the next, the one after that, I choose to sprint (BUT ALWAYS STOPPING FOR CARS, DRIVEWAYS OR TRAFFIC) Mamma didn’t raise no fool.
Or I can utilize time, brisk walking for 20 seconds, and sprinting for 15, slow walking for 30 and then make that a pattern. Do you see where I’m going here with endless opportunities?
5.)MAKE IT SILLY:
I had to save my favorite one for near the end because I truly love this one. Remember when I talked about how kids never run in straight lines? Well, it’s going to come up again here. If you’re brace enough, I want you to experiment with walking or running in a zig-zag pattern, or maybe adding some skips? Too cool for skips? Well then maybe you want to walk backwards for a bit? (if you have balance issues, please refrain from the last suggestion) What about side shuffles or some Monkeys? (don’t know what monkeys are? well neither do I - but if someone told me to try them out, I would sure as heck know how I’d walk like ‘em) The point here is to come out of the walk/run rut by channeling your inner kiddo. Make it fun, make it weird, let the people stare at you and stare right back at them (I’m currently live in Germany right now and this is 100% a cultural thing that is practiced daily) I want you to think of the more BORING way to way and do the opposite.
6.) THE TRIED & TRUE:
And if you’re super boring, you can plain ole’ walk (jog or run) for a borin’ ole 15/20/30 minutes. HA! But I’m sure you already knew this one.
Well, that’s the whole notebook paper. Those are all the things I thought of and my goodness I hope you got SOME fun tid-bit outta this!
