Walking - Is it better to do it incrementally or all in one go?

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

09 Sep 2006 03:59 PM

We talk a lot about walking here in the Fitness blog - probably because it is one of my favorite activities. I walk every day, rain or shine, sickness or health, richer or poorer and whether I do it inside or out. I like walking. It seems hard to believe that anyone wouldn't like walking. After all, our children spend months trying to master their own mobility and learning to walk, so why shouldn't we still strive to match that singular enthusiasm we had for the activity when we were children?

The question today is it better to do all your walking at once or can you break it up into increments throughout the day? I've endorsed both methods of exercise in this blog - whether you walk for 45 minutes straight or walk in three 15-minute increments throughout the day. Both have their perks for the person doing their exercise especially in areas of heart health.

If you are interested in the weight loss benefits, you are better off doing a 30 or 45 minute walk every day, six days a week and taking one day off. That doesn't mean you can't add more minutes or steps as it were to your day, but since we do a lot of walking in our daily activities - then every step beyond your 30 or 45 minute daily walk will be just extra steps on your way towards a desired health and weight.

To really maximize your walking benefits, chart how much walking you do daily. You can do this two ways. You can measure your time spent in number of minutes, for example if you walk your children to school every day and it takes 15 minutes to get there and 15 minutes to get back and that's two trips a day, you are spending about 60 minutes walking. Chances are, that only 30 minutes of that 60 are at any high intensity as your stride will be slower for when your children are walking with you.

Another way to measure your daily walking is with a pedometer. Put it on in the morning and forget about it until right before you go to bed. Check the pedometer for how many steps you took that day. Do this for three days in a row and then average the minutes or the steps. This will give you an average daily balance - try not to do the measurements or recordings on days when you do unusual activities - you want to measure your regular daily steps or minutes.

This will give you an idea of how much you already do, then you can increase that number by either walking in three increments of 10 or 15 minutes or adding a 30 minute strenuous walk to the middle of your day. To lose weight, you want to average about 5 miles per day or 10,000 steps - 2,000 steps is a mile.

So - do you know how many steps you walk during the day?

Related Articles:

I Go Out Walking ...

Step Up: Join the Walking Craze - Book Review

Top Five Reasons to Walk More

Jazz Up Your Walk Routine

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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Sheri Fresonke Harper (4092) 09 Sep 2006 09:52 PM

Thanks for the article, Heather. I walk quite frequently. I've found it helps to know how many miles each of our routes we travel through our neighborhood. We found out by driving the same path and clocking it on the odometer. We have a 1 mile, 3 mile and 4 mile route and the last two both have an uphill section.

Heather Long (16954) 10 Sep 2006 03:50 AM

That's a very good point, Sheri! It's .6 miles from here to my daughter's school, but the hill is very gently sloping -- but there's a route I can take in a huge circuit that's 3 miles and I get some up and down there. The odometer in your car is definitely your friend in this case!