Should you be running or walking to spruce up your fitness regime? While there are pros and cons for both, is one really better than the other? Let’s take you on a quick rundown between the two so you can see for yourself
It’s no secret that running has a host of benefits. It helps you build strong bones, strengthens your muscles, improves your cardiovascular fitness, and helps you maintain a healthy weight by burning extra calories that you don’t need.
The Mental Note found that a PhD holder from the University of Maryland, J. Carson Smith as well as the National Academy of Sciences, discovered that your level of thinking increases when you do a lot of running. In fact, Running has been known to be so beneficial, that you don’t even need therapy if you’ve got this under your belt! Denise Schipani, a writer from Runners World actually found several brain benefits to the popular fitness tool. But, that’s not all. While running helps your brain function better and make you happy, there’s something great about walking too that we just can’t ignore.
Running may seem like it’s a better option because of the higher intensity, but the Harvard Health letter found that walking is one of the easiest ways to become incredibly healthy. Not only does the exercise help you live longer and make you healthy overall, but also walking in the right shoes can strengthen your bones and even clear a cluttered mind. So, forget running just to ease your blues or make you happier – a good, brisk walk can be almost as beneficial.
It reduces the risk of coronary disease, improves your blood lipid profile as well as blood sugar levels, and if you’re worried that it’s not going to help maintain your weight, you’re wrong! It can even help tone your body. The Michigan State University Extension recommends it as a proper physical exercise, not just something that people who can’t run do – as everyone seems to think!
Although walking and running are both extremely healthy, and running has been shown to expend more energy, the question comes back to which form of cardio you should choose? Running is definitely more intense, but you definitely need to be a little fitter in order to be able to undertake this, and starting with a little walking will do you a world of good in order to actually be able to burn more calories when you do begin to run.
The American Heart Association found that walking is as beneficial as running. It was found in a study conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Library that a brisk walk can actually be better than a run! Researchers analysed several runners and walkers, and found that they used the same energy and had similar reductions for heart disease, blood pressure, cholesterol and a host of other benefits. All you need to do is walk a brisk thirty minutes every day to get the maximum benefits!
Sure, maybe running burns more calories quicker because of the intensity, but it also has a lot more risk of injury, strains and blisters, and not everyone can be involved in the high intensity exercise. You can walk alone, without a trainer or any special requirements and at any time of the day – anywhere!
Since it’s easier to get started, has more chances of lasting in the long run and such a plethora of benefits, we’d pick walking as our go-to exercise and save the running if we needed a little extra training. Which one would you pick? Tell us what you think! Discover best places to run in Mumbai.
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