Is “Walking” exercise?

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I realize this might sound ridiculous at first sight, because you are probably thinking well “duh walking is exercise” and to be honest, this is true, it is a form of exercise BUT there is a BIG BUT involved because walking varies and depending the kind of walking and the length of time, it can be less effective as a form of exercise.

 

For starters, I am not knocking those that walk – I walk. I am not knocking those that choose to walk on the treadmill the whole entire gym period long, or that say they walked to the fridge and back to their bedroom and that was their exercise. LOL. — seriously though ( I know people like this) My concern isn’t that you walk because there are people missing limbs that can’t walk and would love to, my concern is “is your walking effective”? think about this for a minute or two and think about what it means to be effective and you would obviously know what walking is… so think about how often you walk and how far, do you think that your walking can be considered effective?

 

Just like any other exercise, walking has to be “challenged” , otherwise it no longer becomes an effective method of weight loss, it will either get to a point where you plateau fairly quickly or get to a point that it bores you or it will get to a point where it is no longer as effective. Everyone has their own fitness level and their own level of what they can do and I don’t expect anyone to run marathons or 5ks ( I surely don’t) so walking is a good thing to get started, to get yourself moving and to stay productive, not to mention it allows you to explore (if you are outside) or if you go to a gym and walk, it allows you to get to know the treadmill and the functions. The key with walking is “Type, time (duration), frequency, and distance” – All of these play an important role with walking and making it effective for you. Now before I go over these fun words, I want to let everyone know who is reading this, NOT EVERYONE IS THE SAME, so don’t expect your results to be the same as someone else’s and all of this information will vary person to person.. depending on your lifestyle choices.

 

Type and/or mode: What kind of walking are you doing? 

 
  • Brisk walking
  • speed walking
  • leisure walking
  • walking backwards
  • walking uphill
  • walking downhill
  • walking stairs
  • walking on grass, concrete,
  • treadmill
  • elliptical
  • resisted walking
  • slow walking
  • moon walking LOL
 

Time (Duration): How long are you walking for? 

  • 10 minutes
  • 1 hour
  • 2 days straight

You get the point, someone who is hiking and walking for days at a time vs someone who walks to their car from their front door.

 

Frequency: How often are you walking?

  • everyday
  • once a month
  • once a year
  • three times a week

again you get the point, this also will make a difference down the road when you hit a plateau.. just like the amount of time. 

 

Distance: How far do you walk?

  • 1 mile
  • 15 km
  • 10 steps
  • 10,000 steps

ALL of these things play an important role with fitness as a whole but since I am talking about walking specifically.. I made this post so that you can see your own flaws and have an idea as to how to “fix” it or better deal with them; whether that means you change the type of walking you do, or change the amount of time you stay on the treadmill – there is different variations, so use it at your disposal if you have to. Maybe some of you are just beginning your journey and can only walk .5 miles once a week at a slow pace – that is fine because if you keep doing that you will see results, however, it will get to the point where results stop or happen rarely and that means you will decide to try to walk 1 mile once a week or .5 miles every 2 days.. or whatever it maybe in order to progress in your workout. Then there may be others of you who are fitness advanced, and walk 10,000 steps easy in a day and decide you want to walk 20,000 steps daily and again that will progress your workout and give you results. 

 

Everything is a trial and error, what works for you may not work for the neighbor, so as long as you progress and overload in your walking – you have a higher chance of results and cardiovascular fitness increasing. Got it? 🙂 good. 

 

Feel free to leave comments, share and like. Thank you for reading.

 

Your Fitness Blogger,

Shay-lon xxxooo 

 

P.S keep in mind eating habits play a part in this as well. 

Published by WonderWoman & Fit

You can assume I have a love for fitness & a love for Wonderwoman -- both assumptions are correct. I am an ACSM certified personal trainer of 8+ years -- I currently reside in Ohio and live a simplistic life at the age of 29. If I am not lifting, I am eating, sleeping, traveling, exploring, or movie watching. I recently moved during a pandemic, now I am focused on self care (self love), building a business of my own in personal training, becoming a professional blogger, starting a podcast and doing things that make me happy! I am a sister, daughter, and loyal friend --- I love everyone's dog and I am on a mission to pet as many dogs as possible everywhere I go! LOL. My mission is to talk health (physical/mental), design programming, motivational speak, learn, grow, prosper, build others and make as many people smile as possible because I want nothing more than to be the change I seek in the world.

32 thoughts on “Is “Walking” exercise?”

  3. Speaking of butts, your post reminded me of the meme that goes something like: “Ask your doctor if getting off your butt is for you.” When my wife and I started our recovery, it was walking all the time. Will still do it but now we’ve got all the other stuff, too.

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    2. We typically walked each weekday. I would walk my wife to work and then I would go to the gym and walk home or just back home. About 5km a day. Nothing spectacular but it got us moving.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Oh wow! I wish I could walk to work (we have to use our car) but that would be awesome. I love walking, I usually walk at parks or new trails or something like that. I personally like using walking as exercise.

      Liked by 1 person

    4. These days my walking is with the grand babies and it’s typically a lot of stop and go with shouting (get away from the road! don’t pick that up! stop hitting your brother! etc.).

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Because walking is a part of life. It doesn’t really get the heart rate up, unless you’re race walking, and in that case you may as well be running. For that reason I simply choose not to count it.

      Liked by 1 person

    3. Okay. Well that is fair enough. I think it is vital in exercise, but then I also realize not everyone can walk so.. that is when I have to consider the fact it is a blessing that I am able to do so.

      Liked by 1 person

    5. Well,
      not necessarily to “start” walking but to walk to places near me, I can’t. I can’t walk to work or walk to the store, these are luxuries bigger cities have that my small town doesn’t.

      Liked by 1 person

    7. Oh wow! Yeah, we don’t have good public transportation here, so we use our own vehicles or some people might be lucky enough to bike. I can probably walk to the store closest to me, but it would be a lot to lug around so many bags of groceries.. walking. I walk at local parks and sometimes trails.. but not as often as I would like to.

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    8. Well, our transportation isn’t that good, we wake up earlier than we should 😅 Traffic is chaos and parking… You imagine. I would recommend smaller Spanish cities for a healthy living 😊 But in US size that’s maybe a big town, not a city 😀

      Liked by 1 person

    9. Oh jeez. That seems horrible too! ugh.
      Well, possibly bigger town , but a big city allows for one to live downtown or close to it possibly and be able to walk to shops and gyms, etc. I never lived in a city, so it would be a change up 🙂

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    1. Hey!
      Thank you! Are you changing your routine again, well everything is a trial and error, nothing wrong with changing what needs fixed in order to meet goals 🙂

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    1. Bahahah! that is funny! I know a friend who counts the steps to the fridge and back as well, makes him feel like he did something productive. LOL. I always tell him to change up his pace – just to add some variety. haha

      Shay-lon

      Liked by 1 person

    1. I like walking too, I don’t see anything wrong with walking for exercise. I like to take walks outside vs on the treadmill, but it still gets the job done. Hopefully my tips just give people a new outlook on walking and exercise. Thank you.

      Shay-lon

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