Yes. Walking Counts as Exercise
One of the biggest myths around fitness is that you need to go big or go home. If you’re not sweating, pushing for a new record, or completely out of breath, you might as well stay home and do nothing.
This is wrong, and it’s a trap.
You shouldn’t treat exercise as an all-or-nothing question. There are many benefits to doing easier or lighter forms of movement. And for most people, walking is the most accessible.
Walking as a form of exercise is counterintuitive. You walk from your car into the grocery store after you park. You walk to the fridge. But just because walking is simple doesn’t mean it shouldn’t count. If you don’t think walking counts as a valuable form of movement and exercise, here’s why you should reconsider.
Walking Comes with Many Health Benefits
There are countless benefits to walking. The Mayo Clinic lists 10 benefits to walking, and a few include:
Weight loss
Improved cardiovascular fitness
Stronger bones and muscles
Improved muscle endurance
Why does walking come with so many health benefits?
Our bodies like to conserve energy. If you’re not using systems like your muscles or your bones, your body will let them waste away as a survival mechanism. Walking activates your muscles, bones, and cardiovascular system in way that tells your body, “Hey, I need this stuff.” Even if you don’t feel like you’re making a huge effort, you’re sending important signals to your body to build and rebuild those systems.
Walking is also a calorically intensive exercise. You burn about the same amount of calories walking a mile as you do running a mile (you just burn them faster when you’re running).
What if you don’t care about being muscular? Increased muscle density, bone mass, and cardiovascular health can reduce or delay the onset of disuse related diseases and increase the amount of time you live a strong healthy life. (For more on this, read How Our Evolution Encourages Exercise.)
Another reason walking comes with so many health benefits is that most people simply don’t move enough. If you’re an average American, you don’t get the minimum recommended amount of exercise: 77% of US adults don’t do 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, which includes walking.
Some exercise is better than no exercise. If you’re walking less than 21 minutes per day, then one simple way to improve your exercise levels is to walk even a few more minutes every day.
If you’re doing more than 21 minutes per day of activity already, more exercise is still better than some exercise. There are added benefits from walking for you, too.
Walking Counts as Cardio
If you do movement that elevates your heart rate for extended periods of time, you’re doing cardio. That includes walking. You don’t need to be sprinting up a hill in a weighted vest or going hard in a spin studio.
If you’re just getting started, walking long periods of time might feel intense and increase your heart rate by a lot. You should feel good about hitting those points of resistance.
If you practice more extreme forms of cardio already, you can still use walking as a cardio workout. If you walk as fast as you possibly can without breaking into a run, you can get your heart rate into training zones. The benefit is that walking is easier on joints and less likely to create muscle fatigue. Pro athletes like Tim Howard use walking as a way to train cardio without putting too much stress on their bodies.
Here’s a fun way to turn walking into hardcore cardio for the more cardiovascularly fit:
Walk as fast as you can without breaking into a run for 15 minutes in one direction.
Stop and catch your breath. You’re going to need it.
Walk back as fast as you can without breaking into a run.
Walking Helps with Recovery
If you’re sore from a workout, you probably don’t want to consider moving. But even a 15 minute walk can help reduce muscle soreness by increasing blood flow to sore muscles. Instead of doing nothing on rest day, lighter activities like walking and yoga can help you recover in less time (people call this “active rest”).
Theres a bro-science myth that you should do zero activity on rest days or you might undo some of the gains you worked hard at the gym for. Unless you’re a championship body builder, you likely don’t need to worry about the impact of burning extra calories on rest days.
Walking Helps you Stay Consistent
One of the most powerful tools for developing a habit is consistency. If you plan to exercise every day, you begin to make it a part of your routine, and over time, it becomes baked into your day. You’re more likely to exercise when you don’t have to rely on fickle motivation.
It’s physically hard to exercise every day though. We get physically tired, sore, or fatigued and need to take a rest. The problem is that it can be really easy for one rest day to turn into two, and for two rest days to turn into a week of no exercise.
One trick to stay consistent even on rest days is to make walking your exercise for those days. A 15 minute walk is doable even on the most sore of rest days. By getting out for a short walk, you can maintain consistency in your daily schedule, which will make it more likely that you get out for your next workout. And because walking gets your blood flowing you may find you’re less sore after your rest-day walk.
Using Pantheon to Walk More
Walking is one of the best ways to exercise. It’s free, easy, and comes with many benefits.
We designed Pantheon for people of all fitness levels, and we place a special emphasis on encouraging people of all fitness levels to walk more, even if only a few minutes at a time. It’s a fun, lightweight way to get moving more.
When you download Pantheon, it works as a free pedometer app. You get a step goal personalized for you, and you don’t need any new equipment: download the Pantheon app, start tracking your walks, and get moving more today.
Want to learn more? Here’s how to set up your Android phone with the best free pedometer app.