The other day, during my trip in Sri Lanka, I decided to head out for a walk. Nothing strenuous or fancy, just a simple casual walk. Except I wore my heart rate monitor to record some statistics. Any cardio is good cardio, and you should never underestimate the most simple of them all: walking. So just how effective is walking for cardio?
The walk (in photo form)
Let’s take a virtual journey through my walk, in photo form. Here we go:
Heading out
Encountered a friend along the way. It was afraid of me though; did it know what I was up to?
Woof
I didn’t treat this walk as a walking-workout; instead I just walked very casually, without the intent of “exercising.” I glanced at the stats mid-walk:
Keeping pace at 44% of my max HR
Check it out, a small gym in the local town. Looks like it was sweltering with heat up there.
A small local gym
And then I continued to walk through town, under the hot sun, exploring the area. But I’ll keep this virtual photo journey to a minimum; I eventually turned around and started heading back.
Approaching the finish line
The walking stats: 289 calories in 1:19:52
The Stats
From the time I hit the start button to the time I stopped my HR monitor, I logged almost one and a half hours of walking. Here are the stats:
Duration:Â 1hr 19min 52sec
Calories:Â 289
Average HR:Â 48% of max
Max HR reached:Â 58% of max
If you were ever curious about how effective walking is, then these numbers will help quantify it for you. The statistician in me loves looking at numbers, so this was extremely fun for me. It even is a form of motivation to do more cardio–I found the walk more fun because I knew I was collecting some data for this article, and couldn’t wait to see the numbers. Cheesy, huh?
In conclusion, walking is good. Do it! When you have the option of walking to your destination, choose it. It’s a form of functional fitness where you kill two birds with one stone (transport from point A to B, and cardio).
Next experiment?
This has given me an idea. I will compare the HR stats on a single commute via three different methods of transportation: bus, bicycle, and walking. I think it’ll be interesting to put those numbers side by side for comparison. Stay tuned…
Keep reading for more in the Sri Lanka 2010 series…
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I loved this post! I have a heart monitor but I’ve never used it (I tried once to get it to sync with my heartbeat and I couldn’t get it to work so I gave up and forgot that I had it). I think it’d be really interesting to train for a race based solely on heart rate zones rather than time or distance run to see if that makes a difference or not in the end result.
What’s the brand of your HR monitor? You should give it another try… it will open up a new dimension in your training
It came with my Garmin watch (I have the Forerunner 305). I also lost it for several months which didn’t help either. haha. I just hate having anything on me for too long while I’m running – but I should really give it another chance!
Yes you should… and then write about it, haha.
Of course walkin works. Most of the pro men bodybuilders only do walking for their cardio, although their condition is different than most.
More important than the calories burned is the fact that it will increase your metabolic rate for several hours after cessation of the exercise. Same as with lifting weights and other forms of cardio. I would venture to say its the time after the exercise that is more beneficial than the work done during the exercise itself.