"Dressed Up" Walking Is Here To Shake Up Your Exercise Routine

When mobility pioneers Kelly and Juliet Starrett recommended "dressing up your walk" on the mindbodygreen podcast, I honestly thought they wanted us to strut down the street dressed to the nines. The next iteration of the "hot girl" walk, perhaps? 

Besides, I'd argue there are health benefits to sauntering all prim and proper—grooming behaviors can signify one's mental well-being, after all—but a "dressed up" walk actually has nothing to do with your sartorial choices.

First things first: If you're walking regularly, you're doing great. 

"If there's a pill you could take that will reduce your all-cause mortality by 50%, you can give it to your whole family, and it's free, everyone's going to take that pill," says Kelly. It turns out, that "pill" exists—it's walking 8,000 steps a day1. "The research is very clear that when people walk just 8,000 steps1, they get the lion's share of benefits. Not 10,000 steps. Not 12,000 [steps]… 8,000 steps," Kelly adds.

And you don't have to get all those 8,000 steps in at once! In fact, the Starretts encourage short, frequent bursts of daily movement (also called "movement snacks"). "We've gotten stuck in a mentality that you have to do the one-hour block [of exercise], and that's not the case at all," says Juliet. You can totally take short walks over the course of the day and meet the 8,000-step benchmark. 

Once you start walking regularly, "then you can start to dress this thing up," says Kelly. Meaning, you can add on mini exercises or habits that elevate your walk so you can break a sweat and reap even more movement benefits. 

Kelly personally likes to practice breathwork while walking his daughter to school (a 10-second inhale, hold, then a nose-only exhale) to simultaneously increase his CO₂ tolerance. Building up a tolerance to CO₂ helps your cells and body tissues better absorb and use the oxygen they need.

On another walk, "Juliet carried a 30-pound rock," Kelly recounts. Lifting while you walk can help you simultaneously work on your strength and muscle, which is crucial for longevity.

Your daily stroll doesn't have to be too taxing; but if you want to kick things up a notch, try speed walking in intervals. For a block or two, walk as fast as you can, then slow down once you hit a certain mark.