6 days a week
Walking is one of the easiest ways to reach the 150 minutes of brisk activity a week that health guidelines ask for. This plan builds there over 8 weeks, from three 10-minute brisk walks to four walks a week with short intervals and hills, plus the two short strength sessions the guidelines also ask for. Walking alone takes weight off slowly, so if that's your goal, pair it with eating less.
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Walk on Monday, Thursday and Saturday: 5 easy minutes, then 10 minutes brisk in week 1 and 15 in week 2 (15 on both Saturdays), then a few easy minutes. Strength A on Tuesday and B on Friday, 2 rounds, stopping every set with 3 or 4 reps to spare. Wednesday and Sunday: rest or an easy stroll. About 35 to 45 brisk minutes a week. Can't manage 10 minutes yet? Walk for 5, or walk and rest for a minute and go again. Before you start, do the 6-minute walk test twice, or time a usual route, so you can see your progress.
Add Wednesday's walk: the build-up interval walk, 3 rounds in week 3 and 4 in week 4. Monday and Thursday: 20 minutes brisk in week 3 and 25 in week 4; Saturday 25, then 30. Strength: 2 rounds in week 3 and 3 in week 4, plus 2 sets of 10 to 15 slow calf raises. About 75 to 90 brisk minutes a week. Sessions: Build-up interval walk.
Wednesday becomes the interval walking workout: 3 rounds of 3 minutes fast and 3 easy in week 5, and 4 in week 6. Saturday becomes the incline walking workout: 30 to 35 brisk minutes, 15 to 20 of them on gentle slopes (2 to 4% on a treadmill). Monday and Thursday: 25 minutes, then 30. Add a brisk 10-minute walk on both strength days. Strength: 3 rounds, switching a move to its harder option when every round feels easy. About 120 to 140 minutes a week.
The week above: 30-minute brisk walks on Monday and Thursday, 5 rounds of intervals on Wednesday, 40 to 45 brisk minutes on Saturday with 20 to 25 of them on slopes up to about 6%, and a brisk 10-minute walk after each strength session. That's about 150 minutes, because the 15 fast minutes of the interval walk count roughly double, as vigorous minutes do. In week 8, repeat the 6-minute walk test or your timed route.
Keep 150 minutes or more and the 2 strength days. Then choose a direction: for more fitness, a second interval session, or the incline treadmill workout once a 6% slope feels moderate; for more weight loss, the weight loss plan, which builds to 200 to 250 minutes a week alongside strength training and eating less; to start running, the Couch to 5K plan; over 65, the seniors plan's balance work. Repeat the 6-minute walk test every couple of months. Sessions: Incline treadmill workout: building up to 12% for 30 minutes.
Walk at a pace where you can still talk but couldn't sing the words of a song. That's brisk, moderate effort: about 5 or 6 out of 10, where 0 is sitting still and 10 is the hardest you could go. If you can say only a few words without pausing for breath, you're working vigorously, at about 7 or 8 out of 10: that's the effort for the fast minutes of the interval walks.
In studies, the point where talking first gets harder matched a breathing threshold measured in the lab, on treadmills and bikes and in people with heart disease. So go by your breathing rather than your speed, and slow down on hills and hot days.
Start every walk with about 5 minutes at an easy pace, building to brisk, and end with a few easy minutes, as NIH's sample walking programme does. The easy start is your warm-up: if you like to stretch, NIH's booklet says most experts advise doing it after you've warmed up, or at the end.
The calf stretches at the end of each session are optional, for comfort.
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Change one thing at a time: more days first, then longer walks, then faster walking and hills, the order the WalkBack trial's walking programme used. WHO advises starting small and building up gradually.
This plan adds about 5 minutes per walk each week. That's our editorial starting point, not a tested rule. NIH's sample programme builds more slowly, reaching 30-minute brisk walks in weeks 11 and 12, and it's a good option if you'd like to go gently. If you walk fewer than 3 days a week, it advises taking more than 2 weeks before adding more.
There's no planned lighter week. If a week felt hard, or your legs or feet still ache the next morning, repeat it before moving on.
Missed a walk? Carry on with the next one rather than doubling up. A shorter walk still counts: the UK guidelines say any activity is better than none, and the minutes can come in bouts of any length.
After a week or more off, go back a phase and build up again over a week or two (our suggestion).
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You do not need to train to failure. Stopping 2 or 3 reps short, often written as 2 to 3 reps in reserve (RIR), gives similar results for most people.
In this plan's two strength sessions, stop every set with 3 or 4 reps to spare in weeks 1 and 2, then with 2 or 3. When every round feels easy, switch one move at a time to its harder option.
Stop and call 999 (911 in the US) for chest pain that feels tight or like squeezing, or spreads to your arms, neck, jaw or back; chest pain with sweating, feeling sick, light-headedness or breathlessness; or severe difficulty breathing. Don't drive yourself to A&E. Pain and swelling in one leg with breathlessness or chest pain needs 999 too: it can be a blood clot.
See a GP if your legs ache when you walk and the ache goes within a few minutes of stopping: it can be narrowed leg arteries. Achilles or calf pain is fine up to about 5 out of 10 during a walk if it has settled by the next morning, the rule our pain guides use for tendons; if it's worse the next morning or building week on week, ease off and see the guide for that area. Pain in one spot on a bone that you can point to with a fingertip is different: don't walk through it, and get it checked, as our stress fracture guide explains.
Adults should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, such as brisk walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, plus strength work for all the major muscles on at least 2 days. The NHS suggests spreading it over 4 or 5 days, or every day, and NHS Better Health puts it as about 20 to 30 minutes a day. Walks of any length count.
If 150 feels far off, start anyway: the UK guidelines say any activity is better than none and more is better still, and that even one or two sessions a week bring benefits. This plan reaches about 150 minutes of brisk walking in weeks 7 and 8.
The NHS puts a brisk walk at about 3 mph (4.8 km/h), faster than a stroll. In lab studies, about 100 steps a minute was moderate effort for most adults aged 21 to 85: count your steps for 15 seconds and multiply by 4.
Both numbers are averages that don't allow for fitness, and people vary a lot: a fit person may need to walk faster or uphill to reach moderate effort, and a less fit person may get there more slowly. So the talk test leads, and the numbers are a check.
In the WalkBack trial, 701 adults who had recently recovered from low back pain followed a walking and education programme that built up days first, then minutes, then faster walking, hills or stairs. It nearly doubled the time until their back pain came back (a median of 208 days against 112), though the walkers reported more problems in their legs and feet (100 against 54). This plan uses the same order.
How fast to build is less certain: a review of 37 walking trials couldn't pin down the best number of days, minutes or pace, and we found no trial comparing ways of building up. Our 5 minutes a week is an editorial choice; NIH's slower programme, reaching 30-minute brisk walks in weeks 11 and 12, is a fine alternative.
Interval walking alternates 3 minutes fast with 3 minutes easy, five times over. The trials set the fast pace at about 70% of each person's peak aerobic capacity, measured in a lab, and the easy pace at about 40%. Breathing hard and able to say only a few words is our everyday translation of the fast pace.
In a 5-month trial in 246 adults averaging 63, interval walking on 4 or more days a week raised thigh strength by 13 to 17% and fitness by 8 to 9%, more than steady walking did, and lowered blood pressure more. In a small trial in 32 people with type 2 diabetes, it improved fitness, body fat and blood sugar more than steady walking that used the same energy. In 679 people, fitness rose with up to about 50 minutes of fast walking a week, then levelled off.
Most of the research is in older adults in Japan, and keeping it up is the hard part: over 22 months, people managed about 70% of their target training days on average. So the plan starts with 3 rounds once a week.
A slope makes walking harder without walking faster: in a lab study of 16 fit adults, it took about half as much energy again at a 5% slope and roughly double at 10%. Your hips and calves do most of the extra work.
In small lab studies of healthy adults and adults with obesity, walking slowly up a gentle slope loaded the knee less than walking briskly on the flat at a similar effort. But your knees bend more with each step as the slope steepens, and the thigh muscles work harder at the same speed, so if you have pain around your kneecap you may not find hills easier: keep them gentle, and see our runner's knee guide. Walking downhill loads the knee much more than the flat, so take descents slowly.
In 32 trials in inactive adults, walking programmes of 4 weeks or more raised fitness, lowered blood pressure by about 3.6/1.5 mmHg, and took about 1.5 cm off the waist and 1.4 kg off weight, though they didn't change cholesterol or other blood fats. In 42 studies of walking groups, people added about 80 metres to their 6-minute walk and their depression scores fell, with no notable harms.
As your fitness improves, the same pace usually feels easier, so the talk test will speed you up (our reading).
Walking programmes without a diet took off about 1.3 kg over a median of 16 weeks, about 0.05 kg a week, and longer programmes took off more. Across 116 trials of aerobic exercise in adults with overweight or obesity, 150 minutes a week took off about 2.8 kg and 300 minutes about 4.2 kg, mostly in supervised trials, and European obesity guidance says to expect no more than 2 to 3 kg on average from exercise alone.
Exercise falls short of the calorie sums mainly because the doses are small and people eat a little more. Your waist and fitness usually improve more than the scales: to lose more weight, eat less as well, and see the weight loss plan.
Health guidelines ask for strength work for all the major muscles on at least 2 days a week, and the UK Chief Medical Officers now say it should count as much as the 150 minutes. Walking counts toward the 150 minutes but not toward the strength days.
The two 20-minute sessions here meet the guideline with a chair, a wall and a band, or no equipment at all. The UK guidelines report health benefits from over 30 minutes of strength work a week, and these give about 40.
A brisk 30-minute walk is about 3,000 steps, and with your everyday steps, meeting the guideline usually comes to about 7,000 to 8,000 a day. In large studies, 7,000 steps a day went with a 47% lower risk of death than 2,000, and over 60 the benefit levelled off at about 6,000 to 8,000 a day. These are links, not proof.
Track your steps if you like, but minutes are the target. Our guide to how many steps a day explains the numbers.
Running burns energy faster: in lab studies, running 1,600 metres took about 1.3 to 1.4 times the energy of walking it, and walking cost about the same on a track as on a treadmill. But in a large cohort, walkers and runners who used the same energy had similar falls in the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, and each walking step lands with about half the force of fast running.
On a treadmill, let go of the rails: gripping them cut oxygen use by 15 to 21% at the same setting in a small study, so the walk got easier than the display suggested. A light touch for balance is fine, and use the safety clip.
Most people can start walking without a check: WHO says medical clearance is generally unnecessary before activity no harder than brisk walking, for people without a medical reason to avoid it. Check first, or start somewhere else, if this applies to you:
Our suggestions for common situations:
For the aerobic part of the guidelines, yes: 150 minutes a week of brisk walking meets it. The guidelines also ask for strength work on 2 days a week, which walking doesn't count toward, and over-65s should add balance work. This plan includes two short strength sessions.
About 30 minutes on 5 days makes 150 minutes a week; NHS Better Health puts it as about 20 to 30 minutes a day. Walks of any length count, so three 10-minute walks do as much for the guideline as one 30-minute walk. More is better, though the gains grow more slowly past 150 minutes.
Fast enough that you can still talk but couldn't sing: about 3 mph (4.8 km/h), and about 100 steps a minute or more for most adults. Count your steps for 15 seconds and multiply by 4. If that pace feels easy, walk faster or find a hill.
Yes, slowly. Walking programmes without a diet took off about 1.3 kg in 4 months on average, and 150 minutes a week of aerobic exercise about 2.8 kg in trials. Eating less does most of the work; walking helps your waist and your fitness alongside it.
Probably less than 1 kg from walking alone: walking programmes averaged about 0.05 kg a week. Your waist may shrink a little and your fitness is likely to improve, even when the scales barely move. Pair walking with eating less if weight is your goal.
It's interval walking: 3 minutes fast, then 3 minutes slow, five times, on 4 or more days a week. Trials in Japan, mostly in older adults, found it raised fitness and leg strength and lowered blood pressure more than steady walking. It isn't a weight-loss secret, and the hard part is keeping it up; this plan builds it in from week 5.
Running burns energy faster, about 1.3 to 1.4 times as much over the same distance. But walkers and runners who used the same energy had similar falls in the risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes, and each walking step lands with about half the force. If you'd like to run, our Couch to 5K plan is the next step.
Yes. Walking on a treadmill and on a track cost about the same energy, and the incline makes the hill days. Let go of the rails and use the safety clip: gripping the rails made the same setting about a fifth easier in a small study.
Start with what you can do, even 5 minutes, or walk and rest for a minute and repeat. Bouts of any length count, and any activity is better than none. Repeat a week as often as you need before moving on.
You can: the UK guidelines say to be active every day. Brisk walks on most days are fine, but keep the interval and hill walks to 1 or 2 days a week with easier days between, and rest if your legs or feet are still sore the next morning (our suggestions).
A general plan for adults without symptoms or restrictions, not a prescription. Start lighter than you think, stop for sharp or increasing pain, numbness, chest pain, faintness or unusual breathlessness, and get individual advice if you are pregnant, after an injury or surgery, or managing a health condition. Health disclaimer.