Last time out I discussed Swimming and the Pros and Cons to it. Here I am looking at walking:
The Positives about Walking –
- Accessibility -You can walk anywhere in the world for zero cost.
- Huge Calorie burn – There is an almost endless amount of walking you can do once you have built up your endurance. While similar movements such as running are very finite in the amount you can do per day/week before getting tired/hurt. Walking is almost limitless.
- Easy to do – Many people enjoy the lack of effort required and much lower motivation levels needed to get out and walk.
- Integrates into daily life – You can walk with friends to socialise, can walk from point A to B as part of your daily routine etc. Alternatively, you could use it to destress and clear the head or spend time with the kids in the park.
- Easily Measurable – With fitness apps, wrist pedometers and so forth you can easily measure your total days movement and therefore make accurate decisions on what to do for getting results.
- Good for functional fitness -Walking can really develop fitness if you use hills and a conscious effort to get out of breath. For older people this becomes huge as lower levels of fitness completely undermine quality of life. Waling is the ultimate functional exercise.
- No “exercise reward” – Maybe the best bit of walking is few people feel they have done enough to gain a reward (usually food) for their efforts. This then means the walking does not get out eaten in celebration which is often the problems with standard exercise
The negatives about walking –
- It is time extensive. Walking is slow and therefore can take some time to burn a large amount of calorie.
- Places to walk – While walking is easy in the countryside or London other locations may not have quite the ease or enjoyability to move.
- Poor fitness – Walking can be great for fitness development but most people do not walk fast enough to get these benefits and / or do not use hills to get out of breath. When walking gets tough the brain naturally slows you down.
- Injuries – People with bad backs, leg pains or feet issues can have trouble walking, especially if you use a large volume of movement. Though the chances of pains are much less than jogging.
- Weather – While I used to do a lot of slow walking on the treadmill to get to 4% body fat if all your movement is outside then your are subject to mother nature. This can be a good or a bad thing depending where you live.
Summary
I love walking, I have all my clients use a wrist pedometer as the feed back is invaluable on their weekly movements. I used walking as my primary method to get to 4% body fat. However, it is not the only way to get in shape. Results always come from setting your food intake level to match your current activity level. This may or may not include much movement and walking.
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