Get Fit Walking was launched on January 1st 2024 and is a new strand to Sport Walk’s Youtube channel, that’s all about the fitness side of walking, regardless of whether you’re drawn to taking on challenges or simply want to feel healthier.

There will be all sorts of useful and inspiring content in the series, that’s focused on walking for fitness, so if you’re walking to get fit or stay fit, are interested in what walking can give you or perhaps want to learn whether it is enough of a workout to fulfil your needs, Get Fit Walking has you covered!

Not an online workout class!
Because walking is such a simple process, Get Fit Walking is not going to a be like a structured online workout class, although we will be offering a guided plan alongside everything else in the future. No, Get Fit Walking is about giving you inspiration, tips and guidance, so that you can get the most out of any walk, any time and get fit as a result.

It’s about revealing the amazing progress you can make and what you can achieve, just by walking, so that you can invest yourself in the process and feel confident that it’s going to give you what you want and need.

We’ll also be sharing some Sport Walking challenge ideas, so that you can see how bringing challenge into play, in a fitness routine can be the key that unlocks your motivation to continue and progress, even if you’re not particularly adventurous or aren’t motivated by challenges in the beginning.

Suffer ye not!
Many people think that the only way to get fit, is to start off by suffering and then to keep suffering until their fitness improves and everything gets easier! This is an outlook that we’re going to challenge with Get Fit Walking. We want to show that by adopting a Sport Walking approach, you can begin to make the physical progress you want, in a way that feels achievable and with a level of effort that is sustainable.

The most important thing and this is where Sport Walking in particular shines, is that it’s not just about the activity you do, the effort you make. The walks themselves feed you and give you a sense of fulfilment that will keep you going!

Can walking really get me fit?
Quick answer… YES! There’s been a lot written and said about walking in the last few years and it would be easy to think that it’s some kind of miracle solution, given some of the discoveries that have been made. But the simple fact is that walking, as a method of getting or staying fit and for general wellbeing, has just been hiding in plain sight all this time.

Walking has been prescribed as a ‘treatment’ for some conditions like Type 2 Diabetes or Anxiety and barely a day goes by where there isn’t some new piece of research extolling the virtues of the simple walk for our physical and mental wellbeing. So it’s looking very good for the reputation of walking as an all round ‘good for you’ activity but what if you’re seeking something more?

Something that can get you into shape or that involves greater effort, so you feel like you’ve had a really good workout? Something that might just finally get you fit, after years of trying different fads, plans or classes? How does walking stack up in the more rarified atmosphere of Sport and fitness? Well, in our experience, it stands up extremely well!

Take Sport Walk’s Founder – Roger Burlinson for instance, He’s been Sport Walking seriously for over eight years and hiking for as long as he can remember. Since focusing on Sport Walking as his main activity, he’s seen his all round fitness improve significantly and he’s been able to achieve some really quite amazing things, just by walking, like completing the South Downs Way (100 miles) solo, non-stop, in under 28 hours.

But Roger’s health and fitness improvements haven’t come about as a result of some unique specialist technique that takes months to learn and years to perfect, all he’s done is to focus on making his walking – which is just the way that anyone else might simply walk down the street – as effective and efficient as possible, so that when he walks, he can get much more out of it physically and that’s exactly what Get Fit Walking is going to share, so everyone else can do the same.

We’re going to introduce you to the huge scope for fitness gains, adventure and fulfilment that can be had simply by walking. You see, everything you need to get or stay fit resides within the simple process of walking. You just need to understand how you can adapt a little and harness all this potential.

We’ll also be bringing more general Sport Walking principles into play, to keep you motivated and progressing without even realising it. We’re not just going to show you how to walk round the block effectively, so that you can get fit, lose weight or feel better about yourself. I mean, how many times really can you just walk round the block in the name of fitness before it gets tediously dull and you go off in search of something else?

We’re going to reveal everything that becomes open to you to through Sport walking, giving you not just improved fitness but mental resilience, self confidence and an endless sense of potential. You may have thought that walking was just an achievable way for you to do something positive around your fitness and wellbeing. Well it certainly is that but it’s so very much more besides.

But the beauty of it is that in order to progress, in order to get even fitter and stronger or to maybe start to open up the possibilities that Sport Walking has to offer, you don’t need to learn anything new or or significantly do anything different. Everything you learn, all the adaptations to your walking technique, all the ways in which walking can provide you with engaging experiences, these all come from simply walking more positively, more strongly, more briskly.

In fact, once you make this first step down the Sport Walking path in order to get fit, you begin a journey that can either just provide a good workout or that can take you to a level of capability and achievement you’d not thought possible. There’s no limit to what you can achieve just by walking and without even having to become a race walker or take up another technical discipline. Just walk but walk efficiently fast and the whole world opens up to you!

How to see Get Fit Walking
We’ll be publishing regular editions of Get Fit Walking on a variety of useful subjects from the technical aspects of of walking more efficiently so that you’re getting more out of your walks, to conversations with walkers who share their stories to inspire you in your quest. All this will be on Sport Walk’s existing Youtube channel, with videos tagged ‘Get Fit Walking’

The series will also be released as an omnibus podcast, so you can listen while you walk and get that motivation on the move, to keep you dedicated to achieving your fitness goals. We’re hoping we can give some inspiration and guidance so that when you do go walking for fitness, you can achieve far more from it than you maybe thought.!