Walking: 3 Ideas To Motivate Yourself To Walk

Doctors are unanimous on the benefits of walking for cardiovascular health, maintaining muscle mass and morale. But it's not always easy to motivate yourself to get out and walk every day. That's why we've listed 3 ideas to help you get out and walk regularly.

1- Participate in a pedibus

If you have school-aged children, the solution to walking a little more each day is to participate in a walking bus.

This concept, which comes to us from Canada and Australia, involves walking a group of children to school. The group is usually supervised by parents or volunteers.

On a rotating basis, these chaperones escort children from the same neighborhood to school. For each 'pedibus', there must be at least two adults wearing yellow vests, one leading the group and the other trailing it.

The route can include several meeting points called 'stops' to pick up or drop off other children along the way.

Both friendly and environmentally friendly, this formula also has educational virtues as it introduces children to the dangers of the road and to good reflexes as a pedestrian.

So, if you want to practice walking while creating a social link, find out more from the Réseau mille-pattes which specialises in setting up this type of pedibus (see link below).

You can also inquire directly with the school where your child attends to find out if this system already exists.

2- Practice canine walking

Another idea for walking more often is to practice cani-walking or cani-rando.

The principle of this sport is very simple since it consists of going for a walk in the city or in the middle of nature while always staying behind or beside your dog.

This discipline can be practiced with different breeds of dogs, provided that the animal is at least 10 months old. And if you have a large dog, it's even better because it will drag you along.

You also need to be attached to your dog with special equipment (a harness and lanyard that connects the dog to the owner's harness). You can easily find this type of equipment on specialized sites like https://www.i-dog.eu/fr.

Even if you are not athletic, this form of Hiking can motivate you to walk more because of its fun aspect. In the company of your dog, the physical activity becomes much more motivating.

This discipline that strengthens the complicity between the master and the animal also forces the dog to exercise. Finally, the cani-rando is beneficial to both participants!

3- Clean the environment

Finally, if you're environmentally inclined, a third idea for walking more is to participate in litter pickup walks.

This activity can of course be done individually, but it is even more friendly and motivating when done in a group.

This activity consists of walking a pre-defined route and picking up any litter you come across along the way.

The hike organizer is responsible for planning the route to be cleaned and for distributing to each participant a trash bag and disposable gloves.

This type of walk is done at a leisurely pace so that participants have time to spot papers, cans and other trash on the ground. At the end of the walk, the collected waste is sorted for recycling.

With this type of ecological outing, you will be doing good for nature and your health by walking and moving to collect the waste.

Various associations or communities organize this type of nature clean-up. You can find out more from the French Hiking Federation (www.ffrandonnee.fr) or on the website cleanwalk.org.