For years now, walking has gradually gained a posse of devoted supporters who cherish the ritual for both physical and mental health reasons. Going on a walk activates your vascular system, increases circulation, improves blood sugar utilization, and helps manage inflammation, says Johanna Contreras, MD, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital. Basically, it’s a low-impact activity accessible to even the most beginner of exercisers that boasts *a lot* of benefits for both the brain and bod.
But while you might not need to shoot for 10,000 steps every day, there’s still the question of whether distance is most important when it comes to a walk. Or, should you focus on speed to get the most out of the exercise?
The truth is that walking both farther and faster is ideal, says Dr. Contreras. But, you might only have the time—or energy—for one. Whichever you choose to do, “All walking is important,” says Dr. Contreras. Whether it’s doing an extra lap in the grocery store or taking the stairs, you’re making a difference, she says. If you’re deciding between tacking on an additional half-mile to your daily walk or zooming through your usual route faster than usual, here’s what you need to know about the benefits of prioritizing each one.
Meet the experts: Lauren Hannon Redler, MD, is an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Johanna Contreras, MD, is a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital.
Walking farther boosts your endurance.
Before we go deep, it’s worth noting that there *is* a minimum speed you want to achieve to make sure you’re getting a good enough workout during any walk.
This pace will look different on every person, but you want to feel challenged—and you’ll know you’re going fast enough if your heart rate starts to increase, even ever-so-slightly. Even if you’re going for distance, by the end of your walk, you still want to have broken a sweat, Dr. Contreras says. (Target heart rates vary based on age, but are published by the American Heart Association.)
The biggest perk of walking a far distance: You improve your endurance, or your ability to sustain exercise without overtaxing your heart, because it gets you get used to having your heart rate elevated for an extended amount of time. Walking for longer is key to conditioning your heart to keep working in an elevated state for longer periods of time, says Dr. Contreras. And, BTW, as you age, walking farther might be the better option because you don’t need to elevate your heart rate quite as much to get the same benefit—and you may not want to put too much demand on your heart, she notes.
Walking for a longer distance also means that you’re getting even more benefits beyond what you get beyond walking for a shorter distance at the same pace. And, if you’re someone who can’t walk faster or run, walking farther will also eventually even out to what you can get out of those activities in a shorter amount of time, says Dr. Contreras. (One minute of walking at a high-intensity by picking up your speed generally equals about two minutes of walking at a lower-intensity, per the CDC.)
But, walking faster conditions your heart.
Walking faster puts more demand on your heart, which means your heart rate goes up even higher than walking at a slower pace. “Walking faster definitely helps stimulate more of a cardiovascular response,” says Lauren Hannon Redler, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “Your heart pumps blood around your body more quickly, which helps your muscles improve how they use oxygen and makes them more efficient.”
The higher you elevate your heart rate, the better a workout it is for your heart, which will help increase your exercise capacity, demand more of your metabolism, and manage blood pressure, says Dr. Contreras. Also, since it’s more taxing, you can get the same benefit as walking at a slower pace for longer, potentially even cutting the time required in half.
Is one better for weight loss?
Experts are mixed on whether walking farther or faster is better for weight loss. Walking slower, but farther is Dr. Redler’s preference because it keeps you in zone 2 cardio (a level of heart rate training categorized as 60 to 70 percent of your heart rate max). During zone 2, your body uses fat as its primary source of fuel, though this does not equate to losing fat from your body, says Rachelle Reed, PhD, an exercise scientist in Athens, GA. Still, walking at a slower speed for a longer period of time (about three miles per hour for an hour) led to greater total fat loss in postmenopausal women in a 2023 study in Nutrients.
Meanwhile, walking faster demands more of your metabolism and burns more calories because it’s a harder workout, says Dr. Contreras. “If people want to lose weight, they need to think about increasing that exercise level,” she says. Focusing on burning calories—rather than using an energy source of fat versus glucose—is probably more important for a weight loss goal, says Reed. Plus, even though you’re walking faster, you’re likely still in zone 2 anyway.
Ultimately, weight loss is tricky—and determined by a lot more than your exercise selection. For example, genetics, nutrition, and environment all play a role, according to the National Institute of Health. Keep in mind that walking slower for longer can eventually even out to walking faster for a shorter amount of time, so the “better” between the two might just be what feels best for you, especially since exercising consistently is most important to reap health and weight loss benefits, says Reed.
Ultimately, it’s ideal to mix up your routine with both short-and-speedy walks and longer, slower ones.
Let’s be real: Most people don’t have the time to make every walk miles long *and* at a power walking pace. And you don’t have to. Our experts recommend you do both versions of walking workouts—long and slower as well as short and speedier—depending which one fits into your lifestyle better at any given time, or on any given day. “Both matter,” says Dr. Redler.
While walking faster gives your heart a more intense workout, walking longer builds up endurance by making it work longer. Instead of being just a distance or speed walker, try alternating between the two on different days, says Dr. Redler.
Two more things: When you’re walking long distances, you want to be careful to avoid overuse injuries. You can do this by gradually building up your mileage over time and wearing the proper footwear, says Dr. Redler.
If you’re looking to increase your speed, walking with intervals might be a great way to get there. Walk at a slower pace for three minutes, then increase to a faster one for one minute, alternating until you’ve come to the end of your route. Eventually, you can decrease the amount of time you spend walking at slower intervals and increase the amount of time you’re going faster.
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