Can you build muscle just by walking? Experts reveal

After years of raving about high-intensity workouts, people are now turning to one of the simplest forms of exercise – walking. What makes it simple? Almost anyone can do it. It’s low-impact, which means people of all fitness levels can do it. It requires no special equipment, meaning it can be done anywhere.
While regular walking is linked to several health benefits, including improved aerobic fitness, lower body fat, and reduced blood pressure, is it good enough to build muscle? Let’s take a look.

Walking is a good way to stay healthy. If you walk for about 30 minutes every day, it significantly reduces the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Walking is also linked to reduced blood pressure and improved good cholesterol (HDL). Walking after meals has been shown to minimise blood sugar spikes. A brisk walk is also beneficial for weight management. This simple exercise has also been shown to reduce the risk of depression. It lowers stress, promotes better sleep, and protects memory. Walking is also linked with a lower risk of dementia. It helps prevent osteoporosis and strengthens your bones. Walking is also the single most important exercise linked with longevity.

Now, if you are planning to build muscle strength, walking alone is unlikely to help you. According to Grace Horan, a certified exercise physiologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery, while walking can help develop muscular endurance, it’s not the most effective way to build muscle. “To build muscle, the human body must be continuously challenged by increasing resistance and/or volume of exercise, which is known as progressive overload,” Horan told Women’s Health.

According to her, walking alone won’t provide enough resistance to induce muscle hypertrophy (an increase in muscle mass). If you want to build muscle mass, focus on resistance training, she said.

When you walk, your slow-twitch muscles are activated. “Walking activates your slow-twitch muscle fibres, which build muscular endurance and resistance to fatigue, as opposed to your fast-twitch muscle fibres, which build muscle mass,” Horan explained. So, in order to activate your fast-twitch muscles, you will have to do some weightlifting, jumping, and sprinting.
“You can increase the intensity of walks to engage more muscles by adding inclines or a weighted vest, but ultimately you need a greater external stress on the body – like resistance training – in order to build muscle,” Lindsey Bomgren, a certified personal trainer and the founder of Nourish, Move, Love, told the magazine.

However, previous research suggests that aerobic exercise, like walking, running, or cycling, can build muscle in older adults and sedentary people. In fact, any form of exercise may help prevent age-related loss of muscle mass, according to a study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Walking isn't without its physical benefits. It engages several major muscle groups, including your quadriceps (the front of your thighs), hamstrings (the back of your thighs), glutes, and calves. Your core and lower back muscles also work to keep you upright and maintain good posture throughout. It's a solid, full lower-body workout – just not an intense one.

A few simple tweaks to your walk can meaningfully increase the benefits. Horan suggests walking for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, at a moderate intensity.

When you walk on an incline, whether on a trail, a flight of stairs, or a treadmill, it forces your glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, and core to work much harder than on flat ground. The 12-3-30 treadmill workout (30 minutes, 3 mph, 12% incline) is a great place to start.

Rucking can improve your results. You can carry a weighted vest or wear wrist or ankle weights. This simple tweak increases the load on your muscles. Start light and work your way up.

Stop every five to ten minutes during your walk to knock out a set of squats, lunges, or push-ups. These brief bouts of strength work scattered throughout the day can improve muscle growth, especially for people with a sedentary lifestyle.

Alternating between fast and slow walking pushes your muscles harder and burns more energy than a steady-state stroll.

According to experts, changing surfaces can help strengthen some muscles and connective tissues in your ankles and legs. So try walking on unpaved trails, beaches, or wooded paths, rather than always sticking to your usual pavement.