Based on a report released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, only 78% of those who say that their primary form of exercise is walking actually do enough of it. The Surgeon General’s public health standard for adequate physical activity is at least 30 minutes a day done in moderate intensity. This is the minimum if one wants to acquire a comparatively positive degree of health. Translated into walking, that’s at least 2 miles done at a 15 minutes-per-mile pace. Given that it’s such a light exercise, it can be surprising that not more people actually pursue it.
An easy entry point
Walking is instant exercise and the perfect starting point for the beginner. It’s a basic and natural movement anyone (barring physical disabilities) can do.
Unlike other types of aerobic exercise like swimming or cycling, it requires no additional skill training, no special equipment, and no special time or venue to perform. The running and hiking shoes may add comfort but practically speaking they’re not that necessary as well.
One can get into the exercise immediately. It can be as easy as deciding to walk the few blocks to the office, store, or any other short destination and then back again. It doesn’t have to be done in a purely training regimen context.
Low impact
Someone coming from a significantly sedentary lifestyle will certainly have a difficult time if they plunge right into the hard workouts. Muscle soreness and injuries are the common discouraging obstacles that make a beginner quit during the first few weeks of shifting to a more active way of life.
Because walking is fairly low impact, the exercise poses relatively low risk of injury. Typically the legs are almost always kept straight and there are little eccentric actions that pull muscles apart. Thus in walking, gender and age are not very significant issues that may preclude its use in an exercise program.
Cardiovascular workout
Just like running and other endurance-oriented activities, walking is essentially an aerobic exercise. That means the comparatively low intensity of the exertion allows the body to still produce energy using oxygen. This is what is known as aerobic metabolism.
The main beneficiaries of walking then are the heart muscles and lungs. Large muscle groups like those in the legs also gain improvements in strength but it is those two organs that are actually working out the most. The consequence is a physiological adaptation that makes the cardiovascular and respiratory systems work more efficiently.
In other words, with regular walking exercise, one gets a stronger heart, better circulation, and lower blood pressure and thus lowers susceptibility to cardiovascular diseases.
Burning calories
Walking may be typically viewed as light and easy but it burns calories just the same, albeit to a lesser degree compared to the other harder workouts.
According to most medical professionals who report on the issue of weight loss in the context of physical activity, this fitness goal is directly the result of expending more calories than consumed. Walking then can be a viable method of weight loss as long this condition is met.
This would involve knowing one’s base metabolic rate (energy expenditure at rest) and then measuring the total calorie burn after a walk. If the net calorie burn is more than daily calorie intake from food, then weight loss is on the way. If not, then the walker has the choice of walking more or faster, eating less, or combining both approaches.
