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But what if burpees, weights and buckets of sweat aren’t strictly necessary?

What if you could get fit just by going for a nice walk each day?

Close up of person�s feet, wearing trainers and walking through an urban area

I used the Xiaomi Band 8 tracker to keep an eye on my progress

For years, the messaging has been to go for 10,000 steps per day.

That’s the default goal on most of today’sbest fitness trackers.

Luckily, subsequent research suggests that the branding-inspired figure wasn’t far wrong.

Fitness tracker on person’s wrist

I used the Xiaomi Band 8 tracker to keep an eye on my progress

10,000 steps is enough to make a significant difference to your overall health if you keep it up.

I decided to ditch the gym for a week and try walking 10,000 steps each day instead.

Here are 3 things I learned during my week of walking for fitness:

1.

Screengrabs of fitness tracker graphs

Satisfying graphs from my companion app

That’s the point, right?

If you’re not changing anything then nothing is going to happen.

Overall I found it really doable.

Person smiling, wearing headphones and walking

Me, pleased not to have been roped into the ‘cold water swimming’ challenge

But the beauty of this approach is that it’sveryflexible.

Which brings me on to my second point…

2.

Compare that to my usual gym-based routine.

If I want to walk, I can get up and hey presto, I am walking.

Can just walking get you fit?

It can help, for sure.

It’s an accessible, non-intimidating way to introduce regular physical movement into your routine.

However, it’s not just for older people.

This article is part of TechRadar’sGet Fit for ‘24 weekof fitness content.

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