More than 145 million adults worldwide put walking at the top of their favorite workout activities to get their heart rate going the easiest way. But sometimes people don’t give proper respect to exercise like walking as it should receive, though time has changed now. However, learn more about what going on behind these common walking myths before buying the impression that walking is not worthy enough as a great workout.
Myth # 1: 10,000 steps daily is a must
You may enjoy a great feeling of success seeing your daily step counter spikes to 10,000 marks. But Carol Ewing Garber, PhD, Professor of Biobehavioral Sciences at Columbia University, believes that it might be unfair to aim such target every day. Yes, there are studied proofs that 10,000 steps a day is linked with improved glucose tolerance and lower blood pressure but reaching those marks every day could be quite difficult for new walkers. That’s why Garber suggests targeting 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity workout per week instead of aiming for a specific step count milestone.
Myth # 2: Walking does not help to lose weight
Well, Leslie Sansone, a fitness expert, creator of Walk at Home fitness program, does believe the exact opposite. A gentle stroll around the neighboring block may be not enough even though it’s better than watching dramas lazily at home as walking a few steps could burn a few calories at least. If you want to shed pound from walking, Sansone recommends doing high-intensity interval training or HIIT walking as speeding up the pace at regular short intervals without any sort of running offers major effect on calorie burn.
Myth # 3: Walking works on those who can’t run
Walking can be a transit workout for those who regularly walks to strengthen their heart fitness and endurances, and want to move to the next level which is running but this is not entirely true for all as, not everyone prefers to run after all. Apart from that, Garber thinks walking is a good exercise that suits for all ages and fitness levels. While as a starter, a walk around the block is decent but to maximize the benefits of walking needs engaging adequate time in your sneakers. Garber recommends focusing on distance, duration or calorie burn noting it’s the workout volume that matters whether you are a walker or a runner.
Myth # 4: Only power walking can give you results
A brisk walk, HIIT walking or setting a thousand step goals every day, all are great for reducing cholesterol levels and blood pressure, strengthening bone health and lessening the risk of heart diseases, diabetes or even, certain cancers. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that a need for speed is needed to form a solid walking exercise. Walking the hills or incline walking can be a fantastic alternative to brisk walk, as believed by Matt Minrad, a physical therapist and certified strength and conditioning specialist at Carolinas Rehabilitation. Minrad explained the importance of incline walking this way that, an individual moving at 5 mph on a flat surface burns around the same calories as someone walks on a 3% incline grade at 3mph speed.
