The #1 Walking Method To Shrink Belly Fat Fast After 50, According to a Trainer
As a certified personal trainer and wellness coach, I've seen countless women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s transform their health through the simple act of walking. After leading a community of more than 19,000 women focused on wellness and walking, I've discovered that many people overlook this powerful exercise as they age. But what if I told you the most effective workout for maintaining fitness after 50 is one you've been doing your entire life? Read on to discover my proven walking plan that can help you lose weight, boost your mood, and add years to your life.
Walking: Nature's Medicine
Hippocrates, the so-called Father of Modern Medicine, famously said: "Walking is man's best medicine." He was right. A regular walking practice has incredible benefits for your mind, mood, and body.
- Walking can help you lose weight, maintain a healthy weight, and reduce your risk of a myriad of diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and several types of cancer. In fact, research has shown that a regular walking practice can literally add years to one's life.
- Walking also has tremendous mental benefits, helping to reduce stress and cortisol and improving sleep – all of which can contribute to weight loss.
- Walking is good for your mood, boosting levels of the so-called happiness hormones and helping reduce the risk, and symptoms, of depression.
- Finally, walking has been shown to reduce cravings for high calorie, high-fat foods, thus further supporting a weight loss journey.
Simple, Safe, and Effective
In short, walking is low-impact, requires virtually no equipment, and can be done pretty much anywhere. Walking is safe for most people (always check with your doctor before beginning any new exercise program) and it's normal to experience occasional aches and pains—especially when starting a new routine. That's where pain-relief products like Aspercreme can help. Its fast-acting pain relief can keep minor muscle soreness from slowing you down, so you can stay consistent with your walking practice.
The Ultimate Walking Plan to Stay Fit & Lose Weight After 50
Pay Attention to Your Form
How to do it correctly
While most of us have been walking for decades, there are a few things that are important to think about when you begin walking for fitness. Here are the top three:
First, be sure that your abs are engaged when you walk. One of the best ways I know to be sure your abs are awake is to imagine that someone is throwing a heavy beach ball right at your belly and pretend to catch it. For most people, simply imagining this will cause your abs to engage.
Second, take a moment to focus on your posture. Imagine a string from the top of your head pulling you tall. Drop your shoulders away from your ears, and be sure your chin is parallel to the ground.
Third, as you walk, strive to keep your feet parallel to one another, lined up like railroad tracks.
How often and how long to do it
Walking is an exercise that can be done most days, but how often and how far depends entirely on your level of fitness. Wherever you start, work to add a bit of distance and intensity each week.
Why it works
Not only is walking a fantastic way to fire up your metabolism and burn some calories, the mental and emotional benefits of a regular walking practice are key to helping fuel weight loss. These include reducing stress (and thereby reducing tendency to stress eat); improving sleep (poor sleep has been associated with weight gain); and reducing cravings for nutritionally poor food (a fascinating study showed that walking reduces cravings for chocolate).
Easier options for beginners
Walking is the ultimate scalable form of exercise. Easy option? Start slow and with a distance that feels doable. Build from there.
Mistakes to avoid
The biggest mistake I see when people commit to beginning a regular walking practice is the "all or nothing" mentality. People will say "I'm going to walk every single day" and then when life gets in the way (and it will), they feel that they have failed and give up. Don't give up.
Add Intervals
How to do it correctly
Intervals are all about big swings in intensity. When you are in the working part, work hard (for you), push your pace and make it challenging. When you are in the recovery phase, really dial it back to an easy stroll to recover.
How often and how long to do it
Adding intervals to your routine twice a week can provide the right amount of challenge without over taxing your system. Since there is a mix of higher intensity and lower, it averages out, so each session should be about the same time as your usual walk: if you regularly walk 30-40 minutes, plan your interval session in that time range.
Why it works
Intervals get your heart rate up, ideally higher than you'd be able to achieve during a regular walk. Fitness is all about introducing a challenging stimulus and intervals do just that.
Easier options for beginners
The great thing about intervals is they are scalable to meet you where you are. If you are a beginner, walking for 1 minute at a brisk pace might be difficult. That's fine. Walk at that brisk pace until you are uncomfortable, then walk as slow as needed to recover.
Mistakes to avoid
Once you are accustomed to intervals the biggest mistake to avoid is not going hard enough on the working intervals, and not going easy enough on the recovery. The concept is to go hard and then go easy and recover fully. Avoid going a little above medium, and a little below medium.
Ruck
How to do it correctly
Ideally, use a rucksack or plate carrier designed specifically for rucking. This will help keep the pack close to your body and make it easy to add weight as you get stronger.
How often and how long to do it
Begin rucking just once or twice per week, adding weight and increasing the distance as you get stronger.
Why it works
Adding load to your walks torches calories and helps to build strength, enabling you to get more fitness bang for your walking buck.
Easier options for beginners
Rucking is incredibly scalable: begin with just 5 to 10 lbs of additional weight and short distances. Build from there.
Mistakes to avoid
The two biggest mistakes are doing too much too soon either with weight or distance and using a pack that doesn't fit properly.
Join (or create) a Walking Group
How to do it correctly
There are no rules: the goal is simply to find a few people to walk with a couple of times a week. Many communities have walking groups sponsored by the town or by private groups. Find one, join one, or create one of your own.
How often and how long to do it
As often as possible provided that your walking group provides the right stimulus. So if you are walking for fitness and weight loss, you will want to walk with a group at least a couple of times per week that maintains a good pace.
Why it works
Research shows that we are more likely to show up when we have made a commitment to someone else, so put that natural tendency to work to help you (and your friends) stick to your walking practice.
Easier options for beginners
Find just one friend who is at about your level of fitness and commit to walking together once or twice a week.
Mistakes to avoid
I once tried to create a walking group of 8 people in the summer. It was a complete fail. Adding too many people to the group, at least at the outset, tends to reduce the level of commitment people feel (they think that they don't need to show up because other people will). Start with just 3 or 4. And, depending on where you live, often summer is a challenging time to get people to commit. Think fall or spring to launch your group.
Honor Active Recovery
How to do it correctly
Adding active recovery to your fitness program is essential for achieving the long-term benefits you want, especially after 50. However, active recovery is not spending an entire day on the couch, but rather, continuing to move your body at a slow and easy pace. Consider an easy stroll or gentle walk on your recovery days.
How often and how long to do it
How often you need a recovery day depends on your level of fitness as well as how hard you work on your working days. Generally, if you are working at your maximum (whatever level that is for you) plan two active recovery days per week.
Why it works
Our bodies get stronger as they adapt to increased challenge and that adaption occurs in the rest and recovery stage. It is an essential part of your fitness and wellness.
Easier options for beginners
Those who are very new to a walking for fitness program may need to alternate work days with active recovery days as their bodies adjust.
Mistakes to avoid
There are two mistakes people often make. First, especially when they are launching into a new fitness program, is not taking any recovery days at all. That is a recipe for both burn out and overuse injuries. Second, is treating a recovery day as a day to be completely inactive and allow your nutrition to go completely off the rails. Remember: nutrition and physical activity go hand-in-hand especially if you have weight loss goals.
Your Weekly Walking Plan
If you are using a walking routine to up your fitness and fire up weight loss, a specific strategy can be useful. Here's a weekly strategy that can work, keeping in mind that each element should be scaled for your level of fitness:
Sunday Long walk: make this your longest walk of the week. Slowly build distance.
Monday Rest day: after your longest walk, it's the perfect time to rest and recover.
Tuesday Intervals: mixing up the pace and getting your heart rate up delivers great benefits. Try 4 minutes of hard walking (for you), followed by 3 minutes of walking at a recovery pace. As you progress, increase the length of the work interval and decrease the length of the resting pace.
Wednesday Ruck: Add some weight, up the challenge, build strength and boost bone health. This session should be mid-range in time – meaning not your shortest and not your longest.
Thursday Rest: after two strenuous sessions, take a rest day. This can include active rest and recovery, a short walk or stroll, some light gardening, etc. It doesn't mean sit on the couch all day.
Friday Intervals: Go back to intervals and mix it up. Tuesday's session had longer working intervals, so shorten it up with 90 seconds of fast walking and 60 seconds of recovery.
Saturday Ruck: For the second rucking session of the week, let's just get it in. Especially knowing we have a long session tomorrow. Saturdays can be busy, so 20 minutes here will do the trick though as you get stronger build and your schedule allows you can add weight and distance.
Results You Can Expect
One of the remarkable things about a walking program is how quickly most people's bodies adapt. Within 4-6 weeks, most will find that their endurance has improved and walks that seemed challenging at the start of the program feel far easier.
Weight loss results will be highly individual, based on each person's unique physiology and the nutritional changes they made along with their new walking program. Remember, weight loss requires a combination of improved nutrition and increased physical activity—and both are essential for weight loss goals.
Final Advice for Beginners
While consistency is key for any kind of exercise program, so too is remembering that every step counts and every mile matters. Walking is one of the very best things you can do for your mind, your mood, and your body. Do it as regularly as you can.
With any new form of exercise, you might find that adding distance, load, or otherwise upping the ante on your walking program results in some mild muscle soreness. Used as directed, over-the-counter pain-relief products can provide fast-acting, odor-free relief to ease discomfort so you can keep moving and stay committed to your walking goals.
The most important thing? Just start – and keep going.
Joyce Shulman is the author of "Why Walk: Discover the Transformative Power of an Intentional Walking Practice," a Wellness Coach and Certified Personal Trainer. Her practice focuses on empowering women in their 40s, 50s and 60s through exercise as well as personal and professional coaching to create lives they love.
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