The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults should do 150 minutes of moderate cardio or 75 minutes of vigorous cardio every week.Walking and running are both uncomplicated, low-cost ways of meeting this recommendation.The only equipment you need to walk or run is a pair of sturdy shoes and appropriate workout clothes.
Advantages
Both walking and running share many of the same advantages.Both are literally as simple as putting one foot in front of the other.You don't have to pay for a gym membership, and you can walk or run almost anywhere -- hiking trails, city parks, city sidewalks or rural trails.Walking or running is also a good way of sneaking in healthy together time with family or friends.You might even be able to convince your workplace to institute walking meetings for small groups.
Impact
Walking and running have two major differences.Running burns more calories and places a more intense load on your cardiovascular system than walking over the same terrain.This is useful once you've reached a base level of fitness and are ready for further challenges, but walking is a more appropriate choice of exercise if you're just starting out.The other major difference is impact.Your bones, muscles and connective tissue absorb the impact of every running stride.Walking produces much lower impact forces, which makes it more suitable if you have injuries or weakened bones.
Modifications
Even though walking is less intense than running over the same terrain, you can still make walking into a very intense workout.Try walking up an incline; the steeper the incline, the greater the cardiovascular load and the more calories you burn.You can also do intervals, mixing brief spurts of fast or uphill walking in with a more moderate pace.Both of these strategies work to increase the intensity of your running workouts, too.
Strategies
No matter whether you're walking or running, you should always take five to 10 minutes to warm up and cool down with gentle cardio activity before and after your workout.A slow walk or jog, slowly ramping up to your normal workout speed, is one of the easiest ways to warm up.
If you struggle with motivating yourself to walk or run a certain distance, try wearing a pedometer.Two thousand steps walked is roughly equal to one mile, and it takes fewer steps to run one mile.A good pedometer can count both walking and running strides, and once you calibrate it for your stride length you can view your progress in terms of either distance traveled or steps taken, whichever motivates you more.
News: Samuel Kohan, PhD, Psychoanalyst Video
