7 Powerful Walking Moves To Tone Your Legs & Glutes Fast
If you've been hoping to tone your legs and glutes without committing to an intense gym routine, I've got good news for you. As a Director of Education at Balanced Body and an expert in Pilates education with over 25 years in the fitness industry, I've helped countless people transform their bodies through simple, effective movements. Walking is one of the most accessible and beneficial exercises you can do—and with a few strategic modifications, it can dramatically tone your lower body. Read on to discover how to turn your daily stroll into a powerful sculpting routine.
Why Walking Works for Toning
Walking has been associated with many health benefits, including breath regulation, decreased anxiety and depression, and increased overall sense of well-being. As for specific toning benefits of walking, a consistent walking workout will tone your legs and your glutes. Biomechanically, when you walk, the motion of your legs, the articulation of the hip joint, the knee joint, and the ankle joint require leg and glute activation. The fact that you are upright in gravity and propelling yourself forward means that there are ground forces that your muscles need to work with and overcome to successfully complete the gait cycle. Balance, coordination, and muscular control are also baked into the activity.
First is literally to get into a walking routine. Take the pressure off doing it right, doing it too fast or too slow. Just commit to the walk, enjoy your time outside, and ask a friend to join.
If you are interested in adding intensity and specific activities to build muscle then adding the following will certainly do the trick.
7 Walking Moves To Tone Your Legs & Glutes Fast
Intervals: Mix Up Your Pace
Vary your speed by creating intervals where you are walking at a relaxed pace followed by short intervals increasing speed. This will challenge your cardio threshold and increase general cardiovascular health. Even adding short intervals of light jogging will do the trick—as little as 20 to 30 seconds for every two minutes of walking can reap excellent results.
Incline/Decline: Change Your Terrain
Walking the same route and the same terrain repeatedly will have value, but as the body anticipates and learns your routine, the benefits may not be as impactful. However, adding inclines and declines will both increase the challenge and change up the routine while keeping the mind in tune with the body and elevating the heart rate. Both incline walking and decline walking will also challenge different muscle groups, creating strength and the development of power. Walking stairs is another way to add inclines and declines to your routine.
Fitness Moments: Add Strength Training
Adding squats, lunges, and other fitness-based calisthenics is a great way to mix up your walking routine. For every 15 minutes of walking, stop, do a set of 10-15 bodyweight squats and/or lunges, then continue. Adding some lower body fitness moments will go a long way in developing strength while you also increase your cardio capacity. Three good exercises to add include lunges, squats, and heel raises.
Master the Perfect Squat
Squats work your glutes, hamstrings, knee flexor muscles, and quads.
- Stand tall, with your head, ribcage, and pelvis all in line with one another and separate your feet roughly shoulder width apart
- Bend your hips, knees, and ankles as you sit back, as if you were sitting in a chair
- As you lower, your torso may tilt over your thighs, but it is important that you maintain the body line
- Lower as far as you can that you maintain the body line
- Stand back to upright. Make sure to stand up as tall as you can before you descend again
- For more challenge…hold when in the squat position for anywhere from 30 sec to 1 minute for an isometric challenge…or longer if desired. From the hold position, pulse within a small range of motion, creating more of a dynamic challenge
Lunges for Functional Strength
The lunge works your glutes, hamstrings, knee flexor muscles, and quads. The lunge is directly related to walking and functional reciprocal leg motion.
- Stand up tall, creating one long body line, head, ribcage, and pelvis aligned and over the legs, which are straight
- Step forward, bend both the front and the back knee, and lower toward the ground
- Keep the body upright and the body line straight as the body lowers
- Straighten the legs to return to the starting position
- For more challenge…hold when in the lowered lunge position anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds. From the hold position, pulse within a small range of motion, creating more of a dynamic challenge
- For more balance and functional challenge, start with legs together, step forward, lower, and step back to start
With both squats and lunges, there are a few common mistakes:
- Sacrifice the body line for a deeper squat or lunge
- Lower spine arches or the pelvis/hips remain high as the torso lowers
Heel Raises for Ankle Strength
Heel raises work your calves, ankles, and feet while improving balance and coordination.
- Standing tall, with legs straight, press the floor away with your toes as you lift your heels
- Lower with control and repeat
- For an added challenge, stand on a step with the balls of your feet on the edge of the step. Lower the heels below the level of the step and then press with the balls of your feet into the step as you lift the heels
The biggest mistake here is being so focused on balance that you do not really move through a full range of ankle motion. Stand by a countertop or inside a door frame for just enough support that you have a full range of motion.
The second biggest mistake is to focus only on the heel raise phase—but the slow, controlled return is key to training balance and strengthening intrinsic muscles of the calf, ankle, and feet.
As simple as this exercise is, it is essential to feet, ankle, and calf strength.
Building Walking Endurance
If you are interested in creating more walking endurance, less fatigue, and longer walking duration, then try the following:
10 minutes longer – Start increasing your walking sessions by 10 minutes at least one of your walking sessions a week.If you are walking 30 minutes, try 40 minutes. Gradually increase all your walking workouts to 40 minutes, and then, when you find you are comfortable and used to this time frame, start adding 10 minutes one time per week. You get the idea.
Once you have added your time, then add the challenges above—intervals and the bodyweight exercises.
Creating Your Weekly Walking Routine
Walking is by far one of the most important and healthy things we can do for our long-term health, and the healthiest walking workout is to get up out of your chair and commit to walking 3 to 5 times during your work week and at least one day over the weekend. Consistency is the first and most important workout strategy to start immediately. Take the pressure off doing it right, doing it too fast or too slow. Just commit to the walk, enjoy your time outside, and ask a friend to join. Walking outside is particularly beneficial and recommended as the benefits of outdoor walking stimulate the brain in positive ways and create an environment that is different than the office, separating work from the act of taking care of yourself—an important, positive, and influential step to maintaining a healthily work-life balance.
Nutrition's Role in Seeing Results
Exercise will help you feel stronger and healthier. Proper nutrition will help you to truly reap the benefits of walking and will help you see faster results with your walking. Physiologically, when you're walking, your metabolism will start the furnace. What you feed this furnace matters. Your muscles like protein, your cells crave water and those green leafy veggies and your digestion does best on foods with fiber. When you're active, all the cells of your body, muscles included, will thrive in the presence of good nutrition.
What Results to Expect
What you will notice first will not be what you see on the scale but what you feel. You will feel stronger, taller and generally 'better'. After three to four consistent weeks, you will start to see changes in the tone of your legs and glutes. After six weeks, you will be well on your way to establishing your walking as a health habit, and you will start to crave more (see above)—which will lead to further changes.
And if you don't know how to start – just walk!
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