The 666 rule for walking is a simple fitness trend that promotes consistent movement, with two main versions.
The two main versions of the 666 rule for walking is the structured workout where you walk for 60 minutes at a brisk pace, and incorporate a 6 minute warm up, a 6 minute cool down, that is ideally done at 6:00 AM or 6:00 PM.
And the beginner/flexible version of the 666 rule is where you take 6 separate 6 minute walks throughout the day, 6 days a week, to break up sedentary time and easily meet your activity goals.
The key benefits of the 666 rule for walking is it helps stress and burnout, sustains fitness and improves cardiovascular health, metabolism, mental well being and can aid in weight management.
The 666 rule for walking also encourages consistency with low impact manageable activity and helps manage workday stress and prevent burnout, making the fitness feel less daunting.
40 minutes walking a day is also enough to help maintain your health and keep your heart healthy and keep your weight down as well.
Although if you're trying to really lose weight then you should walk longer than 40 minutes a day and increase your walking pace.
But for maintaining health 40 minutes of walking a day is enough for many people.
A 40 minute brisk walk a day can also contribute to a longer lifespan and provide you with benefits for your circulatory system and heart health as well as immune system and bone density.
Walking 40 minutes a day can also reduce stress and improve your mood by improving and increasing the blood flow to your brain.
Walking 40 minutes a day can also burn a significant amount of calories and contribute to weight loss, especially if the 40 minute a day walks are done vigorously.
And walking is a great, low impact form of exercise that is suitable for most people and the 40 minutes of walking doesn't even need to be in one continuous session.
If your goal of walking is mainly weight loss then you may need to increase your walking time to 45 to 60 minutes a day and or increase the intensity of your walks and to achieve higher levels of fitness, you also may need to incorporate more vigorous activities such as running or even strength training in addition to the walks.
If you're new to exercise, you should first begin with slower and shorter walks, then gradually increase your duration of the walks to 40 minutes or more each weak along with the pace of the walks.
If you can't walk for 40 minutes straight, it's also okay to split your walk into shorter and more frequent sessions throughout the day.
One long walk is also better than many short walks.
Going on one longer walk, helps your body fully engage it's systems for greater health benefits.
Although the best approach when walking also depends on your goals and your schedules, shorter walks are also great for remaining active and preventing sedentary time, although adding longer, sustained walks such as 15+ minutes will boost cardiovascular and mortality risk reduction significantly.
The key when walking for health is consistency and also increasing the duration of your walks over time, making the longer walks a priority when possible.
It's also better to walk both fast and longer for optimal health.
Walking faster is also strongly linked more to reduced mortality risk and more improved health and longer walks also build your endurance and can also be more sustainable.
The ideal approach to walking for health benefits is to actually combine both walking faster for a portion of your walk and then continue walking for a longer distance.
The more you walk, the healthier you can become and you can also lose weight by walking longer and even faster and can help to maintain a healthy weight.
Walking a faster pace is associated with a lower risk of death from all causes, especially from cardiovascular disease as it helps keep your heart healthy and helps improve blood flow.
Brisk walking and walking fast also improves your heart's efficiency and increases oxygen delivery to your heart and the rest of your body and helps to reduce cardiovascular issues.
For older adults, increasing your walking speed and walking as fast as you can, can also lead to substantial improves in your overall ability to walk longer distances.
Longer walks also help to build up your overall endurance over time.
And slower, longer walks also put less strain on your body, when compared to fast walking, which can also potentially lower your risk of injury.
Longer walks can also be good as they can also provide you more time for a mental time out and can also improve your emotional well being.
To combine both walking fast and longer walks, start out with a brisk walking pace to get your heart rate up, as this also provides the most significant health benefits.
Then add longer distance at a moderate pace.
After the fast paced portion of your walk, continue walking for longer distances at a slower or even more moderate pace to meet your step goals and help build your endurance.