Sand walking is scalable and approachable for all fitness levels, writes Gary Dawkins.
Benefits
• Burns 20-50% more calories than walking on hard surfaces.
• Walking on sand offers strength training, in particular it strengthens both the anterior and posterior muscles and joints between and including the hip and feet.
• Is low impact. A soft cushiony sand is easy on your body.
• Improves proprioception, which is essential for balance, co-ordination and stability.
• Replenishes the soul. A great exercise to relieve stress and calm the nervous system with the soft rhythm of the waves and majestic colours of a sunset.
How much to do?
Start by walking at a slower pace and for a shorter duration compared with hard-surface walking
Spend a 50/50 time split between the soft sand and the firmer sand near the water. You can zigzag your walk between the firm and soft sand to achieve this.
Initially, avoid doing too much. Do one or two beach walks per week and space these a few days apart. Once your muscles and tendons adapt to the activity, you may be able to increase the duration or add an extra day into your schedule. You can also change the soft sand/firm sand time split, so, progressively, more time is spent walking on the softer sand.
Try to plan your walk around low tide so there’s sufficient firm sand.
At completion, do a slow five-minute cool-down walk on the footpath to help flush lactic acid from your legs and to prevent stiffness.
If you feel comfortable progressing from the standard programme you can also incorporate interval training into your sand walks.
How to do an interval sand-workout
Walk at a comfortable pace for 5 minutes on the firm sand to warm up.
Zigzag intervals; power walk on the soft sand for 2 minutes, then walk on an angle down to the firm sand and slow walk for 2 minutes.
Repeat the pattern for 20-30 minutes
N.B: You can do the above programme running on the soft sand, then jogging on the firm sand.
Now add some weights
If your sand-walking programme is becoming stale you can change the intervals and incorporate body-weight exercises into your programme.
Here’s how to incorporate body-weight exercises into your sand-walk programme:
Walk at a comfortable pace for 5 minutes on the firm sand to warm up.
Walk at a fast pace on the soft sand for 5 minutes.
Perform a body-weight exercise for 10 to 20 repetitions (or however many you can do with proper form).
Walk on the firm sand for 5 minutes at a comfortable pace.
Repeat the pattern until you have completed five body-weight exercises
N.B: You can do the above programme running on the soft sand, then jogging on the firm sand.
