Walking workouts are all the rage at the moment — from silent walking for your mental health, to the military-inspired rucking technique to build muscle. But one form of walking workout making headlines is the Japanese Interval Walking Training (IWT), which promises to burn more fat and lower your blood pressure by alternating your pace. Unlike walking 10,000 steps, this science-based method raises your heart rate and boosts your cardiovascular fitness in less time.
This isn’t an entirely new phenomenon, however. "Fartlek" walking has been around for a while, and translates to ‘speed play’ from the native Swedish. It’s all about varying the pace and difficulty throughout your walk, mixing intervals of faster-paced walks with slower rambles, allowing you to catch your breath. A study found that alternating periods of brisk and slow walking speeds can improve cardiovascular fitness, boost your overall fitness, and help control blood sugar spikes.
Keen to give a new workout a try, I built my own fartlek walking session, and repeated it every morning for seven days. Read on to find out more.
What is the 5-2-4 walking workout?
Ready to get walking? Here’s the workout:
- Warm-up: For me, this was a five-minute walk at a reasonable pace, but it might be some bodyweight exercises or stretching.
- 5 minutes: Walking at a brisk pace, this is a 7/10 walking effort — you should be working hard.
- 2 minutes: Recovery walk at a slower pace. This should be a 4/10 effort max — you’re still moving, but you should easily be able to hold a conversation with someone next to you, and your heart rate and breathing should return to normal.
- Repeat four times.
Even with the warm-up, this workout took me around 30 minutes every morning. I programmed the workout onto my Apple Watch 10 to avoid having to look at my wrist every few minutes — my watch would buzz when it was time to switch pace.
While this workout is suitable for all levels, as you’re walking speed will be based on your exertion levels, if you’re new to fitness, or you’re returning to exercise following an injury or pregnancy, it’s always a good idea to speak to your doctor before taking on a new routine.
I tried this 5-2-4 fartlek walking workout for a week — and it’s a game-changer
Here’s my verdict after a week of walking:
It was a step up from the Japanese walking method
For those who haven’t tried it, the Japanese Interval Walking Training method involves three minutes at a low intensity, then three minutes walking at a high intensity for 30 minutes. This was a slight step up, as the high-intensity part of the workout was longer, and the recovery blocks were shorter. I found that I didn’t have long to catch my breath before I was picking up the pace again.
I personally loved the extra challenge of walking at a brisk pace for five minutes. I thought about my walking technique — engaging my core so my abs were working, keeping my chest open and shoulders down, and swinging my arms as I moved.
If you’re new to fartlek walking, or you’re getting back into fitness, it might be a good idea to try the three-minute intervals first and build up to five minutes.
I got a lot done in 30 minutes
Like all working parents will appreciate, I have a lot to juggle, and despite writing about fitness for a living, sometimes it’s my workouts that suffer.
Despite only being 30 minutes long, I felt like I’d worked hard with this interval walk. I’d raised my heart rate higher than I would typically do on a dog walk, and I’ve found interval walking is a great option for those who want to reap the benefits of walking, without the time to take a longer stroll.
Walking can help improve your overall fitness, build muscle, strengthen your bones and joints, and help boost your mood and lower stress. You’ll also burn more calories doing a fartlek walk than you typically would walking at the same pace for the same time.
If you are walking for weight loss, remember the key is to be in a calorie deficit, burning more calories than you consume. One of the easiest ways to keep an eye on your pace, heart rate, and calorie burn is to strap one of the best fitness trackers to your wrist.
I’m still hooked
I was instantly hooked after a week of the Japanese walking method, and I equally enjoyed this fartlek workout. As a runner, I use my walks as a form of active recovery, but this was a great way to work on my cardiovascular endurance, without the impact of running.
It also helped me de-stress and boost my mood, plus, it gave me the excuse to take a break from my laptop and spend 30 minutes outdoors in nature — something we should all do more of.
If fitting long workouts into your routine feels overwhelming, this can be done with no equipment, on your lunch break, in your local park or even on the treadmill at the gym.
Plus, the joy of fartlek is the freedom to play with your pace — if structured intervals feel too much, just walk faster for two blocks, then slower for a block, or use street lights as your markers. However fast or slow you walk, you’re getting fitter and healthier with every step.
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