Steppin’ up in May

Since #GetHullActive launched over 35% of our pledges have had to do with walking more. So we've had our resident walker pull together 5 tips on how to get the most out of your walking for National Walking Month.

Measuring your walks

Some of our pledges talk about step count, time and distance. Which one you want to measure, if any, will be down to your own goal. The best base measure however is time, this is easy to do simply by looking at your watch or phone when you set off and then checking it again once you finish your walk. Remember you only need 150 minutes of physical activity a week to be considered active. That’s less than 25 minutes a day!

Go at your own pace

While setting an ambitious distance or step goal may feel like the big change you need, it’s just as important to build up to the big changes with some small ones. While targeting 20,000 steps a day is a great goal and can be achievable, repeating it daily can be the more the challenging aspect. Starting at 10,000 steps (or less) and building up to higher targets will help you find a distance that works for you. If you’re looking to build up to a distance than check out the park walk program from parkrun. You may not need to start from week 1 of the program so see which week’s activity works for you!

Build it into your day

We know that one of the barriers to staying active is time constraints. When targeting 10,000 steps a day, knowing that a trip to the supermarket shaves 2,000 off the target will help make those other 8,000 feel more achievable and less time consuming. Think about what small changes you can make to your daily routine to add to your step count.

Sensible footwear

Probably one of the easiest things to get wrong when upping your step count is footwear. You don’t need to spend money on fancy walking boots, but you do need to make sure that your shoes are sensible for your route terrain and distance. Make sure they’re comfortable and don’t cause you any issues. Nothing can ruin a walk faster than bad footwear!

Make it something you look forward to doing

Make your walks about you!  The easiest way to make walking a habit is to find a way to make it something you want to do. This could be to escape the stress of the office for 20 minutes, catch up with your friend in the park, walk your four legged friend or even using your walk time to rediscover something you’re interested in through a podcast. It’s a lot easier to turn something you’re enjoying into a habit!

If you find any of these tips useful or are inspired to try and fit more walks into your day than make your #gethullactive pledge today!