Fat Burning Benefits Of Walking
There is a lot of talk on this blog about interval training and how great it is - I should know, I’ve researched and written about it - but what about the other end of the scale? If sprint interval training is the highest level of intensity in cardio training, then it should stand to reason that walking is the lowest level of intensity.
If you burn off the most fat by doing high intensity cardio training and the least when doing low intensity cardio training, then how can there be any benefits of doing low intensity cardio traininig?
Simply put, you can’t always train at the highest level of intensity, unless you are superman! I find that I can only do sprint intervals at most twice a week, I need the time between each session to allow my body to recover. Whereas with low intensity cardio, I can do it every day.
Another unsung benefit of low intensity cardio is the fact that it’s something you can look forward to, without any worries of it being physically demanding. This is something I find with high intensity cardio that I don’t know I will ever get over – the need to “psyche” myself up for a sprint interval training session – I don’t need to do this to go for a walk, I just grab my iPod and go.
Lastly, something that is often overlooked, when you go for a walk, it’s quite easy to go for an hour, during which time you might burn 300 calories. Ok, not a lot, but it wasn’t hard work. If you had a dog, and took it for a 30 minute walk at the start and end of each day, you will have achieved that. Compare how effortless that is against going for 15 –20 minutes of sprint interval training or high intensity interval training.
I’m not saying everyone should stop doing interval training, merely that walking is a perfectly good way to keep yourself ticking over, and that if you want to get fit, you should look to incorporate some additional cardio work such as jogging, cycling, rowing or best of all, interval training.
2 Responses to “Fat Burning Benefits Of Walking”
May 29th, 2009 saat: 3:59 pm
This is a great follow-up to your interval training post, Tristan. I can only do sprint intervals or other kinds of interval training cardio 2-3 times a week, and I almost cringe at the thought of going to the gym on those days.
Moderate- to low-intensity cardio is much less scary to me, and I can go for a longer time. I’m still a big advocate of interval training if you want to burn calories like crazy, but like you said, I’m no superman! Better to at least do something active than chicken out because you don’t feel like powering through intervals that day.
May 29th, 2009 saat: 5:20 pm
Absolutely, like you I do love the interval training, but I’m also aware of the pyschologic effect of training like an absolute animal every day - burnout!
I know from my own experience that if I trained hard every day, I would be burnt out after a few weeks - sure I’d see some great results, but then I’d probably end up not doing anything for a week because I would have built up a mental block to training.
Better to go for delayed gratification (slower results) and no burnout, than instant gratification and potential burnout - this is not just good advice for fitness, it holds up pretty well in all aspects of life, personal finance is one that springs to mind immediately!
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