The Latest: Walking vs Running

by Tom Venuto 
There's so much confusion about the benefits of cardio including the effects at different intensities (low vs moderate vs vigorous). An even bigger problem is the way so many people confuse health benefits, cardio fitness benefits, and fat loss benefits (these are 3 very different subjects!).

Many fitness enthusiasts believe that unless cardio is high intensity (like interval training), it's not beneficial (a "high intensity or nothing" mentality). In a similar train of thought, most people think that walking is not intense enough to improve your health much, and you always get more benefit from running.

Not according to a study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The results found that walking briskly can lower your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes just as much as running. In addition, the benefits increased in a dose-response manner.

This study looked at health benefits, specifically risk factors for cardiovascular disease in subjects ranging from 18 to 80 years old, clustered largely in their 40s and 50s. They found the following:

Walking reduced risk for first-time hypertension 7.2%, running reduced risk by 4.2%.
Walking reduced first-time high cholesterol risk 7%., running by 4.3%.
Walking reduced first time diabetes risk by 12.3%, compared to 12.1% for running.
Walking reduced coronary heart disease risk by 9.3%, running 4.5% .

Fascinating, isn't it? The researchers said benefits were "similar" but if you look at the numbers, walking was actually better.

Of course, the devil is in the details: they weren't comparing equal amounts of time spent, like 30 minutes of walking vs 30 minutes of running (running would win that comparison).  They were testing whether equal amounts of energy (calorie) expenditure by moderate intensity walking and vigorous running provided equal benefits.

When energy expenditure was equivalent the health risk reductions were similar.

So, contrary to what you may have heard, it's not that walking can't benefit your health as much as higher intensity types of exercise, walking is simply not as time efficient. It takes a lot more time walking to get the same energy expenditure you'd get with running.

It's the same thing if we change the subject to fat loss. Low, moderate, and high intensity cardio can all help with fat loss, but the higher the intensity, the more efficient the exercise is, because it burns more calories per minute. This is why people who are short on time, and are physically able to do intense exercise, often choose the higher intensity cardio.

The problem is, high intensity cardio is hard and not appropriate for everyone. The author of the study, Paul Williams, pointed out that walking may be a more sustainable exercise for many people compared to running.

He also said that people are always looking for an excuse not to exercise ("I can't run or do HIIT because of my knee, my hip, my foot" etc.). Thanks to research results like these, perceived barriers to exercise have been removed. Not as many excuses left for not walking!

There's a place for all kinds of cardio, depending on a person's goals, needs, and preferences, and make no mistake, I'm a fan of HIIT and other hard, brief cardio. However, I also love walking and hiking and have been encouraging people to walk more for years. That's one of the reasons I sponsor walking fitness challenges (based on steps).