Walking 101: Which Is More Important, Distance or Speed?

Walking is one of the most underrated forms of exercise. Most people think it isn’t very effective for burning calories and improving fitness, but it’s quite the opposite!  What’s more, walking is easily doable for most people, making it a great choice to add to your fitness routine. It’s free and you can vary the intensity to meet your needs and ability.

As simple as walking is, there are a few things to know before you start a walking routine. Firstly, you’ll need some comfortable shoes. It’s important to find sneakers that are supportive but don’t restrict your movement.

You also need to stay hydrated during your walks, especially if you’re exercising on a hot day. Dehydration can impair your physical performance and make you feel tired and lethargic.

Walking Distance vs Speed

When you’re thinking of a new walking routine to try out, you have a couple of options. You can either focus on walking a specific distance, or you can focus on your walking speed.

Regardless of which one you choose to focus on, you will experience the benefits of walking almost immediately after you start doing it regularly.

Walking distance refers to how far you walk. Some people enjoy tracking their daily number of steps, or they look at how far they have traveled in miles or kilometers each day.

Focusing on distance is ideal if you’re trying to reach a daily step goal or you want to estimate how many calories you’re burning each day. It's also great if you're working on building up more cardiovascular endurance.

Walking speed refers to how fast you’re walking. If you’re trying to boost your cardiovascular fitness and improve your heart rate variability, focusing on speed walking might be better than focusing on the distance.

If you can, try and incorporate both distance walking and speed walking into your weekly routine. Try alternating between each one so you can work on muscular endurance and fitness at the same time.