Start below your best. Your team just needs you to show up.

Short answer

A good beginner walking challenge is short, personal and social. The 3-Day Walk & Water Challenge gives you a step goal sized to today, a simple water goal, and a team of two to four on a live leaderboard. Teams rank on their average, so a new walker counts the same as anyone.

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First two rounds free · teams of 2–4 · a new round every Tuesday

By Coach Josh · Get Your BMR

2 sources · Reviewed October 20, 2026

The short version

  • Minutes are easier to grow than miles
  • One route means fewer decisions
  • A new walker counts the same as anyone on the team
Illustration: a woman taking a relaxed walk down a quiet neighborhood sidewalk.

Free interactive tool

Build a finishable three-day plan

Choose a comfortable starting walk and get a gradual three-day schedule.

Start smaller than you think

The best first goal is one you could repeat tomorrow. For many beginners that is 10 to 15 minutes at a pace where you can still talk in full sentences.

For health, the CDC baseline is 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, plus muscle strengthening on two days. You don’t have to start there. You build toward it.

What “moderate” feels like

A common rule of thumb from walking research: about 100 steps a minute is roughly a moderate pace. You can talk, but you couldn’t sing. If you can’t talk, slow down.

Why a team helps beginners most

When you are new, the hardest part is day two. A team of two to four notices when you show up, and because teams rank on their average, your first walks count exactly as much as anyone else’s.

Walk it with a team this week

Join a team of 2–4, walk & drink your water Tuesday to Thursday, and see the winners Friday.

Download for iPhone Get it on Android

First two rounds free · teams of 2–4 · a new round every Tuesday

The 3-Day Walk & Water Challenge

How a round works

  1. 1. Join a team

    Two to four of you on one team: a friend’s, your own, or one you join in the app. Your team gets a name, a crest & a spot on the live leaderboard.

  2. 2. Walk + water, 3 days

    Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. A step goal & a water goal sized to where you are today. The board updates as you walk & closes Thursday at midnight, Arizona time.

  3. 3. Friday winners

    Friday morning the results go up. The winning team’s card glows gold, badges land beside names on the board, and a new round starts Tuesday.

Bigger isn’t better. Teams rank on their AVERAGE.

A team’s score is its average per woman, not its total. So two friends can beat a team of four, and every walker’s day counts the same. When one of you goes quiet, the others notice & send a nudge in team chat.

The Walk & Water team card: team name and crest, team level, the average steps per woman, and each teammate’s steps and glasses of water.
Your team card. The big number is the average per woman.
The Walk & Water leaderboard: your rank this week, steps, glasses of water, day streak, and the 3-day challenge rankings.
The live leaderboard. Solo, team & global ranks for this round.

The beginner rule of three

One route, one comfortable pace, one check-in after the walk. Keeping it the same makes progress easy to see.

  1. Pick a known route

    A safe, familiar loop or an indoor option, so weather & directions are not extra decisions.

  2. Use the talk test

    Walk at a pace where you can still talk in full sentences. Slow down whenever that changes.

  3. Tell your team

    Drop one line in team chat after each walk. Somebody noticing is what brings you back tomorrow.

Questions

How long should a beginner walk?

A length you could happily repeat tomorrow. The planner on this page starts as low as five minutes.

What if I miss a day?

Life gets in the way, that happens. Pick it back up the next day. Your team will be glad you’re back.

Do indoor steps count?

Yes. Hallways, a treadmill or laps of the house all count.

Sources

Written by Coach Josh and checked against these sources on October 20, 2026. General information, not medical advice.

Show all 2 sources
  1. CDC — Adult Activity: An Overview
  2. Tudor-Locke et al. (2018). Walking cadence as a practical estimate of intensity. British Journal of Sports Medicine
Coach Josh

Who writes these guides

Coach Josh

Professional trainer since 2018 · ISSA & NCCPT certified · Creator of Get Your BMR & the Walk & Water Challenge (BodyByReason)

I’m Josh. I built Get Your BMR so you could see what your body burns at rest, & I built Walk & Water so you’d have somewhere to use it with people who notice when you show up.

I walk every round too: same board, same three days, on my own team. I don’t always win. Tap Chat with Coach in the app & it’s me who answers.

About 7 in 10 women who finish a round come back & play the next one.

Walk & Water app data, 73 finishers, snapshot October 19, 2026.

Start this week’s round

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First two rounds free · teams of 2–4 · a new round every Tuesday

Not sure where to start? Get your number first

Related guides

Get Your BMR is Coach Josh’s free calculator. The 3-Day Walk & Water Challenge is where you put the number to work, and it runs inside the APEX: Walk & Water app on iPhone and Android.