As we approach snowy and darker months, making it harder to get out for your regularly scheduled “Hot Girl Walks.” This is what most people see as the coziest time of the year, but for some it’s time for seasonal depression.
According to USA Today, the popular term “Hot Girl Summer” started circulating the internet in 2018. The phrase refers to young women having a summer full of confidence and being “unapologetically themselves.” But this mentality should apply all year, and keeping the confidence could help keep seasonal depression symptoms at bay.
In the past few years, “Hot Girl Summer” has transformed into people regularly going on walks outside, these walks being labelled “Hot Girl Walks.” On the average “Hot Girl Walk,” girls will wear their best workout outfits, carry a fanny pack and blast the best strut songs through their headphones.
The idea starts to defrost in the spring, carrying through the summer. But what happens when you have to stop wearing your cute sets and are seemingly stuck inside as the weather gets colder?
You’ve always been told getting regular exercise is good, but how much does it actually do for you? The Mayo Clinic says that 30 minutes of exercise three to five days each week has a huge, positive effect on our mental health, improving anxiety and depression symptoms.
With all the facts being said, how do we transform our “Hot Girl Summer” into a “Hot Girl Mentality” that we can have year round? Our first step, Hot Girl Walks.
We have a few more weeks to squeeze in outdoor walks, and even though we can’t wear our cute sets, I encourage you to make a cute, cozy outfit that works for you and the slowly dropping temperatures. Take a look at my Pinterest board for comfy outfit inspiration.
Finding your favorite route is important, so take a few different routes to find the cutest neighborhoods, or even if you don’t wanna leave campus, take a walk from one side to the other, finding new paths that you don’t normally take to classes.
But what happens when it gets too cold and we can’t have our Hot Girl Walks outside anymore? We move it inside, for a treadmill strut.
Going to the gym can be intimidating, but going with a solid plan to just have a Hot Girl Walk makes it a little easier. Hopping on the treadmill for 30 minutes can help keep you on track with your average walks.
Now it’s not always best to get on a walk at one speed with no incline, as it doesn’t imitate your regular adventures outside. There’s no change in scenery and it can get boring just staying in one place. So how can we make the most mundane of activities more exciting?
Treadmill struts have ruled my life for the past few winters and I have been on a constatnt jounrey of how to make it the most interesting, experimenting with the “12/3/30” workout (or a variation) being incline 12, speed of 3.0 mph, for 30 minutes, tried the programmed workouts already on the treadmill or just walked in a straight line.
My favorite that I have found though is 30-45 minutes of adjusting the incline and speed according to playlists I have found on TikTok by the creator Allie Bennett, where she has curated countless playlists on Spotify. These range from Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, Fleetwood Mac, all the way to Disney Channel and 2010 throwbacks.
For any Swifties reading, Bennett has an insane amount of playlists to coordinate with each album released and general Swiftie moods.
And she likes to post the preview to the treadmill workouts on her TikTok, one of her latest being to Taylor Swift’s “1989” rerelease.
Each playlist is about 30 minutes to an hour, consisting of songs increasing in speed when not shuffled. Bennett has titled these the “Treadmill Struts” and in each description, she has put what speed she recommends starting at, going up in speed for each new song.
My favorite to use lately has been the “eras tour treadmill strut,” but being honest it always fluctuates depending on what I’ve been listening to.
These playlist are the perfect strut tempo to feel like the hottest version of yourself, really giving a new meaning to “Hot Girl Walk.” And there are so many different genres to choose from with over 100 playlists, there is bound to be a group of strut-worthy songs to fit your hot girl mood.
As you get lost in the playlist, you can change up the routine and increase your incline every song, or increase the speed, maybe even adding in a run or sprint song. This can help add spice to the monotony of walking in the same place for 30 minutes to an hour.
The weather is getting cold and depressing, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up your hot girl mentality that you’ve maintained over the summer. Stay on top of your confidence and manage stress and anxiety this winter by incorporating simple exercise, like a Hot Girl Walk, because you deserve to be happy and healthy.