Walking itself is a nice pastime and a great way to get some fresh air. What it’s not, however, is a great workout with both cardio vascular and muscle building benefits. But by utilizing a few power walking techniques, walking can be turned into a workout.

The key to turning walking into a workout is increasing speed, and in order to increase speed, power walking techniques that focus on utilizing the hips and feet in new ways must be incorporated.

If you’ve ever seen professional speed walkers racing, you’ve likely noticed the exaggerated hip movements on these athletes. While this is not necessary for the average person, an abbreviated version of the hip roll will take walking to the next level.

To achieve this, instead of simply walking with your legs propelling you, try and visualize that you are walking from the hips, and allow your hips to propel your leg. This should produce a subtler version of the hip role. And, while you won’t reach speeds of 12 mph like professional speed walkers. It will help you to reach speeds of up to 5 mph, up from the 3 mph of an average walk.

What will also increase your speed and workout is a focus using your feet for more than stepping, but as a mechanism to propel you forward. This is a technique known as pushing off.
The push off begins at the beginning of stride when the heel hits the ground. The focus should be on rolling your foot to make sure that your toes are the last thing to leave the ground, and your leg is being propelled or pushed to the front again by your toes. You’re not lifting your entire foot in front of you.