Our bodies have been engineered over thousands of years to be very effective at walking. What that means is that your daily saunter around the block may not be challenging your muscles or your heart and lungs, and you are therefore missing out on the multitude of benefits of cardiovascular exercise.

12 to 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise three times a week is enough to get some health benefits and MAKE YOUR WALK COUNT.

How can you fix this?
To make your walk more beneficial, you can do one or more of the following:

1. Head for the hills: walking up or down an incline is more demanding and will make your heart beat faster and your legs work more. Maybe you can find a set of stairs to climb once or twice somewhere along your usual route.

2. Load yourself up: Using hand weights (dumbbells or weighted gloves) will make your upper body work, and will also get your core working. This is very effective at raising your heartbeat. A backpack with weights can also be useful.

3. Go into overdrive: Walk as fast as you comfortably can and swing your arms more than usual. This will also make you breathe a little harder.