There's no denying that walking is a great form of fitness. It can help lift your mood, reset your posture, and give your cardio fitness a boost. So, after coming across the 6-6-6 walking challenge, which involves walking for 60 minutes twice a day, I decided to lace up and see if I could help break out of my exercise rut.
I love exercise and notice the effects a morning gym session or mid-week Pilates class has on my mental and physical well-being. But my desire to work out drops during the darker and colder months of the year and, according to a 2022 poll of 2,000 adults, I'm not alone in this. The poll found that 31% of us are less active during winter—and the darker days and colder temps were the two main reasons cited for exercising less.
I’ve done a handful of walking workouts in my time to try and move more and sit less. For example, earlier in 2024 I tried doing indoor walking workouts for seven days and I loved it. So, after spotting the 6-6-6 walking challenge making headlines, I'd hoped it could help re-ignite my desire to move but— spoiler alert—it didn't.
To find why, what the 6-6-6 walking challenge entails and what happened after I tried it for seven days, keep scrolling. While you're here, check out the top indoor walking challenges and what happened when one writer tried walking every day for two weeks. Prefer to get your step count up inside? Discover what Marie Claire UK's Senior Health Editor, Ally Head, had to say about the benefits of a walking desk in her walking desk review.
What happened when I tried the 6-6-6 walking challenge
First things first: what is the 6-6-6 walking challenge?
Very good question. Well, there are a couple of variations of the 6-6-6 walking challenge floating around on the internet.
But the one I tried involves walking for 60 minutes at 6am and 6pm with a 6-minute warm-up and cool-down.
What are the benefits of the 6-6-6 walking challenge?
Seeing as the 6-6-6 rule is a walking challenge, it can come with most of the much-loved benefits walking can bring. For example, along with being completely free to try, research tells us that lacing up and heading out for a walk can play a key role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
Walking in nature can also be a brilliant stress-buster. According to one 2023 systematic review, published in Current Psychology, nature-based walking improves adults’ moods, sense of optimism and mental well-being, and helps mitigate stress and anxiety.
And, as one 2023 article found, walking can be an “effective strategy” for promoting healthy aging and improving a range of health outcomes, as it can result in increased aerobic fitness, decreased body weight, body mass index (BMI) and percent body fat.
Time plays a crucial factor in this challenge and one study found that morning exercise could help improve the sleep quality of those living with mild insomnia. Researchers in a 2020 randomized control trial also highlighted that a morning bout of moderate-intensity exercise can help improve mental clarity and your ability to focus throughout the day.
I tired the 6-6-6 walking challenge— my thoughts
Days one to three
Day one is here and I'm looking forward to seeing what this workout is all about. A fair few leg swings, lunges, shoulder rolls, hamstring stretches and downward dogs later, my six-minute warm-up is complete. I wrap up warm and head out into the darkness, sticking to the well-lit areas and busy streets.
Thirty minutes in, I'm ready to stop. But I will myself on to keep going. After the hour's up, I check my step count on my phone which tells me I've reached over 5,000 steps by 7.15am. In one way, I'm on a high. It feels like I've watched the sun rise and the world wake up. But in the same sense, it soon dawns on me that I'll have to repeat everything that's come before just 12 hours later. So, after the working day, I grab my coat and head out again, this time with my mum, to do an hour-long circuit.
Day two rolled around and (I hate to say it) I'm already dreading what's in store. My alarm goes off at 6am and I drag myself out of bed. I roll into my walking workout clothes, brush my teeth, have a swig of water, do my warm-up and go. By 20 past 7, I'm done. Phew! And although my legs feel a little achy, I have noticed how getting some steps in first thing helps me hit the ground running. I power through my to-do list and before I know it, it's nearly 6pm and I'm repeating the six-minute warm-up and braving the cold, dark outdoors.
By day three, it would be an understatement to say I was done. I felt tired from the days before and my legs felt a little bit achy from walking way more than I usually would. I venture out of bed (a little later than I had hoped), and come 8am I'm back home and in the warmth. This is the only day that I feel like my evening walking slot is well-timed as I'm heading out for dinner with some friends. So, instead of taking the tube, I head to the nearest train station and walk the 30 minutes to the restaurant and do the same on the way back.
Days four to seven
When day four arrived, I realised that this workout wasn't sustainable for me. So, to ensure I'm still moving, I end up splitting my hour-long workouts into four 30-minute walks throughout the day. I switch out the 6am and 6pm time slots, and fit my steps in at around 8am, when it's light. I then venture out at around 11.30am, again at 2pm and once more at 5.30 pm. The two-morning slots give me a chance to pop my headphones in and listen to a podcast. While I use the last walk to help get some headspace.
For the rest of the week, I try to do the same, although on Friday and Saturday, my walks are cut short due to my never-ending to-do list and prior workout commitments. I tally in at an hour's walk per day. Woops!
My verdict
This workout wasn't for me. I tried all the usual tactics that tend to help me muster up some motivation to exercise—like laying out my workout clothes the night before and even heading to bed earlier than usual so I didn't wake up feeling so groggy. But by day three, my 6-6-6 walking challenge started to come undone.
“If something starts to become a pressure rather than a pleasure, which is clearly what's happening with you, then even if you actually stand the test of time with a challenge, you're not going to keep it up long term,” sports scientist Joanna Hall, founder and creator of the science-backed WalkActive, explains—and she's right.
I realise I started this challenge during the dark, damp and dingier months of the year. As you can see, most of my time spent outside was in the dark. So I appreciate my outlook might be very different if I was taking on the 6-6-6 walking challenge during summer. But even then, it wasn't just the darkness that had a part to play—as I still don't think I'd have two hours to commit to getting my steps in. “You throw family life into that and that's just not accessible, sustainable or achievable,” Hall adds.
Of course, if you like doing two 60-minute walks, then that's great. But I usually break up my working day with a couple of 10-minute walks around the block to help reset my posture and clear my head. “While I think these challenges can be quite motivating," Hall says, "It [workouts] actually has to be sustainable, achievable and consistent. That's where the real value comes.”
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How soon will I see results from walking?
That all depends on what ‘results’ you mean. For example, a 2023 randomized controlled trial found that five-minute walks every half an hour could help counteract some of the health hazards associated with prolonged periods of sitting.
While there’s evidence to show that 10 minutes of brisk walking everyday can result in increased physical fitness, improved mood, quality of life and a 15% reduction in risk of early death.
