Is Walking Good Exercise? What Walking Actually Does for Your Health

Introduction

You want to get moving.

The question is... where do you start?

For most people, walking into a gym for the first time can feel like being dropped into a foreign country where somehow everyone else already speaks the language.

Barbells are flying around, machines look like medieval torture devices, and there’s usually at least one person making enough noise to convince you they’re lifting a family car. So naturally, you make a beeline for the treadmill. And to be fair with you, that’s actually a brilliant place to start.

Before worrying about complicated programmes, heart-rate zones or which exercise somebody on Instagram has decided you absolutely must be doing this week, there’s something far simpler that most of us have been practising for years.

Walking.

You’ve been doing it since you were a toddler. Well... most of us have, and the rest of us are still figuring it out after a couple of drinks.

So, is walking good exercise? Yes.

And probably more useful than most people give it credit for.

Quick answer: is walking actually good exercise?

Walking is physical activity, and when you walk briskly enough to raise your heart rate and breathing, it can count as moderate-intensity aerobic exercise.

The NHS describes brisk walking as a moderate-intensity activity. A useful test is whether you can still talk while walking but would struggle to sing.

Walking can help with:

• Heart health: Brisk walking raises your heart rate and contributes towards aerobic activity.

• Daily activity: It gives you an easy way to move more throughout the day.

• Weight management: Walking increases the amount of energy you use.

• Fitness: Regular brisk walking can help build stamina.

• Reducing sitting: Walking gives you a simple way to break up long periods of inactivity.

• Mood and headspace: A walk can give you time away from your desk, screens and everyday noise.

A slow walk still gets you moving.

Walk faster, climb a hill or stay out a little longer and your body has to work harder.

Simple.

What does walking actually do for your health?

Walking looks simple because it is simple. That doesn’t make it insignificant.

Every time you walk, muscles throughout your legs and trunk repeatedly work to move and stabilise your body. Your heart and lungs respond to the demand, and you use energy to cover the distance.

Increase the pace, incline, duration or distance and the challenge increases too.

Research looking at daily steps consistently links higher amounts of walking and movement with better health outcomes.

And one thing I think is important here is that the benefits don’t suddenly appear when your watch flashes 10,000.

Going from very little movement to a little more movement is already a step in the right direction.

That’s one of the reasons I like walking so much as a starting point.

You don’t need:

• complicated equipment

• an expensive membership

• a new skill to learn

• a perfect fitness programme

• to wait until you feel “fit enough”

You already know how to do it.

Your walk can happen outside, at home, at work, on a treadmill, through a park, during your commute or while pretending to listen to another meeting that definitely could’ve been an email.

That flexibility matters.

Why do we need to think about walking now?

In his book Exercised, evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman explores how humans spent most of our history moving because everyday life required it.

People walked to travel, they carried things, they climbed, gathered food and worked with their hands.

Now compare that with modern life.

We drive instead of walking. We sit while travelling. We sit while working. Then we get home and sit down to recover from all the sitting we’ve been doing. Food arrives at the front door, lifts move us between floors, remote controls save us from the exhausting three-metre journey to the television.

Somehow, we can spend the entire day being incredibly busy while barely moving.

Current UK physical activity guidance encourages adults to be active throughout the week and break up long periods of inactivity.

I think the simplest takeaway is this:

If you currently move very little, start moving a little more.

You don’t need to sell the car and start trekking 15 miles a day collecting your toe tokens.

Just start putting some movement back into the life you already have.

Does walking count as cardio?

It can.

There’s quite a difference between casually wandering around the shops and walking uphill at a pace that has you breathing harder.

Both involve movement, but the intensity is different.

A brisk walk that raises your heart rate and breathing can contribute towards your moderate-intensity aerobic activity.

A simple way to judge it:

• Easy: you can talk and sing comfortably

• Moderate: you can talk, but singing would be difficult

• Harder: speaking in full sentences starts becoming difficult

You don’t need to turn every walk into a military march either.

Some walks can be relaxed.

Others can have a little more purpose.

Can walking help with weight loss?

Yes, walking can support weight and body-fat management because it increases your energy expenditure.

There is some context worth adding. I wouldn’t tell somebody that walking alone guarantees fat loss.

There are several pieces to the picture:

• how much you eat

• how much you move overall

• your training

• your lifestyle

• your individual circumstances

This is where walking becomes particularly useful in coaching.

If somebody already strength trains two or three times a week, adding another brutal workout isn’t automatically the first thing I’d change. Sometimes I’d rather look at the rest of their week.

Could they:

• walk to the gym?

• get outside after lunch?

• walk part of their commute?

• take the stairs?

• spend a little less time sitting?

• turn a phone call into a walk?

None of this makes for a particularly exciting transformation montage.

But health doesn’t need a dramatic soundtrack to be working.

Is walking enough exercise on its own?

Walking can make a meaningful contribution to your weekly aerobic activity, particularly when some of it is brisk.

I’d still want your muscles doing some proper work as well.

Current UK guidelines recommend adults aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each week and include muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days.

So I’d think about the two together.

Walk regularly.

Then give your body opportunities to:

• squat

• lunge

• push

• pull

• rotate

• progressively get stronger

Walking and strength training make a pretty good team.

How can you make walking more challenging?

This is another reason walking is useful.

Once your usual walk starts feeling easy, there are several ways to progress it without immediately deciding you need to become a runner.

Here are a few simple ways to progress your walking:

• Speed: Walk a little faster.

• Incline: Add hills or increase the treadmill incline.

• Time: Walk for longer.

• Distance: Gradually cover more ground.

You don’t need to change all four at once.

If you normally walk for 20 minutes, try 25.

If your treadmill walk feels comfortable, add a little incline.

If you have one route you always use, occasionally walk it at a slightly quicker pace.

Give your body something new to adapt to.

Then repeat it.

Conclusion

So, is walking good exercise? Yes.

Walking is one of the simplest ways to become more active, and brisk walking can contribute towards your aerobic exercise.

It can help you:

• increase your daily movement

• support your cardiovascular health

• build stamina

• use more energy

• spend less time sitting

• support weight management

• create a routine you can actually repeat

I just wouldn’t ask walking to do every job.

Walk plenty, walk briskly sometimes, build some strength too. And start from the level you’re at now rather than the level you think you should already be at. You don’t need to become a completely different person by Monday.

Sometimes getting healthier really does begin with something as simple as a walk.

Your challenge

Take a 10-minute walk today.

No target, no perfect pace. Just get outside, get moving and see how easy it would be to do it again tomorrow.

Until next time,

Ash – The Health Coach
Get Health. Heal Trying.

About Ash The Health Coach

I’m Ash, a Personal Trainer and Health Coach in London. I started as a PT, but years of working with people taught me that improving your health goes far beyond what happens during an hour in the gym.

My aim is to help you move better, build strength, manage body fat and understand your body well enough to look after your health for life.

If you’d like more support, you can explore my Personal Training services or subscribe to Heal the Human for practical lessons on movement, nutrition, recovery and tracking.

Sources & Further Reading

• NHS, Walking for health

• NHS, Physical activity guidelines for adults aged 19 to 64

• UK Chief Medical Officers, Physical Activity Guidelines

• Research on objectively measured daily steps and health outcomes

• Daniel Lieberman, Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding