Is walking a legitimate exercise?
Stilllosing26
Posts: 256 Member
I'm sick and tired of people saying "walking won't get you in shape", and "that's not exercise". What's your view on this subject? I walked two miles today. Was that exercise?
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Yes, walking is exercise.0
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For me it depends on the distance and speed. If I walk two miles at a good brisk pace - break a sweat, have to catch my breath - then yes, it's exercise. But strolling isn't to me. And I don't usually count anything under a mile either.0
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I'm sick and tired of people saying "walking won't get you in shape", and "that's not exercise". What's your view on this subject? I walked two miles today. Was that exercise?
Yeah that's exercise. Walking is actually an excellent way to burn some calories, improve your cardiovascular health and generally just feel better. Bodybuilders often swear by just going for a nice long walk in the mornings during a cut. Anyone who mocks walking as an exercise I think is just uninformed.
If you have some pounds to lose really all it takes is adding a morning walk to your routine and paying attention to your calories. You don't have to break a sweat to be exercising, your aerobic range includes heart rates that are not going to make you pant and sweat.
Most weight I have ever lost in a short time I lost doing nothing for exercise but walking.0 -
Yes walking is legitimate exercise. I lost my original 50lbs by walking and eating right. I am now back into things and this time am doing other exercises as well but I still walk 3 to 4 times a week. I find that the smaller I am the more calories I have to burn so walking alone doesn't always work but I will always keep it as part of my exercise regiment.0
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Most definitely!
My husband and I, both in our 60's work out in the gym Monday-Friday, but every week-end we walk for miles and burn calories and enjoy each other's company.0 -
It is for me0
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Seven years ago I lost 25 pounds and walking was the only form of exercise I did. Worked for me.0
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I'm sick and tired of people saying "walking won't get you in shape", and "that's not exercise". What's your view on this subject? I walked two miles today. Was that exercise?
Did you push yourself? For some people walking two miles is work. For others it's not. I don't call it exercise for me. For you it may be. It depends.0 -
In a word, yes.0
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"Legitimate" isn't a useful word here. All movement burns calories. All movement that you wouldn't have done otherwise burns more calories than you would have otherwise.
Walking is a great place to start, but it is necessary that you challenge yourself going forward. As it gets easier, walk faster, or farther, or up a slight incline. A leisurely stroll might do for now, but in the future I'm not sure it will give you the results you want.0 -
Boy I sure hope so, because if it doesn't then the 70+ pounds I've lost walking and eating right are a lie.0
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Walking is a good exercise but if your aim is to keep progressing and improving your fitness you'll get to a point where walking won't get your heart rate up enough to challange you. Yes you'll still burn caloires but as your fitness improves the calorie burn for the same distance will reduce because your body gets more efficient, your heart rate lowers and you use less oxygen.0
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I'm sick and tired of people saying "walking won't get you in shape", and "that's not exercise". What's your view on this subject? I walked two miles today. Was that exercise?
Did you push yourself? For some people walking two miles is work. For others it's not. I don't call it exercise for me. For you it may be. It depends.
Ditto for me, a 2 mile walk wouldn't challange me in the slightest. I don't personally count it as exercise. This is not to say that it wasn't exercise for you. It's all relative.0 -
Walking is one of the best exercises a person can do to get them moving, and there are different ways to walk that can really give you a good workout, get your heart pumping and work your legs and butt.
I know personally know people who have lost weight (as much as 60 lbs) by walking. Yes, they did watch their diet, but the walking truly helped their weight loss.0 -
I'm sick and tired of people saying "walking won't get you in shape", and "that's not exercise". What's your view on this subject? I walked two miles today. Was that exercise?
Did you push yourself? For some people walking two miles is work. For others it's not. I don't call it exercise for me. For you it may be. It depends.
You should go for a walk with me sometime, see if you still consider it unchallenging :-). Walking can be challenging, depends how much you walk and where you walk.
Will only walking get you a sculpted toned fit bod...no. Will walking get you to a healthy weight and a decent level of fitness if you watch your calories? Yeah.0 -
I am a high school custodian and walk an average of 3.5 miles a night just doing my job. However, since it is not sustained movement it counts as activity not exercise. I would agree with some of the other posts that in order to be exercise it should be sustained and get you heart rate up at least a little0
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Nope, its parents legs and movement never got married.
Illegitimate.0 -
I'm sick and tired of people saying "walking won't get you in shape", and "that's not exercise". What's your view on this subject? I walked two miles today. Was that exercise?
Did you push yourself? For some people walking two miles is work. For others it's not. I don't call it exercise for me. For you it may be. It depends.
You should go for a walk with me sometime, see if you still consider it unchallenging :-). Walking can be challenging, depends how much you walk and where you walk.
Will only walking get you a sculpted toned fit bod...no. Will walking get you to a healthy weight and a decent level of fitness if you watch your calories? Yeah.
Um okay . . .0 -
I think it's a great place to start. I push myself on my walks, and at some point pushing myself is going to get me into jogging and then into running.0
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Yes I walked 2 miles today and consider it exercise...on the other hand I only count it if it is focused exercise and not just strolling.0
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People will have different beliefs on whether it challenges them personally depending on their fitness levels but I would consider anything where your up off the couch and moving regardless to speed, distance, etc... to be exercise..... Best of Luck0
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Of course.0
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It's definitely exercise, and I count it as exercise if I walk over a mile. However, it doesn't burn a ton of calories. If you're someone who is sedentary and you start walking, then I think it will make a significant difference, but for someone who is fit, he might have to bump it up to the next level to get any kind of burn. It also makes a difference how much distance you cover in an hour because of course that increases your burn rate. The danger is for someone to say, "Oh, I took a walk, so I can eat that pastry at the coffee shop on the way back." (My husband and son do that all the time!) Because I'm small and my short little legs don't cover distance very fast, I burn only around 90 calories for a 30 minute walk, not even worth eating back those calories.0
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I'm sick and tired of people saying "walking won't get you in shape", and "that's not exercise". What's your view on this subject? I walked two miles today. Was that exercise?
Did you push yourself? For some people walking two miles is work. For others it's not. I don't call it exercise for me. For you it may be. It depends.
You should go for a walk with me sometime, see if you still consider it unchallenging :-). Walking can be challenging, depends how much you walk and where you walk.
Will only walking get you a sculpted toned fit bod...no. Will walking get you to a healthy weight and a decent level of fitness if you watch your calories? Yeah.
Um okay . . .
Come into my van0 -
It most definitely is exercise. Due to my fused spine I am limited on the type of exercises I can do. I power walk 4 miles every morning and I burn just under 300 calories doing so. I have only been power walking for 13 weeks and I have managed to 8.5 lbs while doing so.0
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I lost close to a 130lbs just walking back in 08. Walking is good
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yes, its my main form of exercise0
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Silly question. Of course, it's relative.
Is weightlifting exercise? sure. Is a power lifter doing presses with a 5 lb bar legitimately exercising? I'd say no. He'd probably not even notice he's doing it.
It's relative to the capabilities of the person realizing the effort. I don't consider my 5 km bike commute exercise. It's insignificant compared to the rest of my riding, both in effort and length. For someone else, it might be all they can do.
Same with walking. I had a severely sprained ankle. All I could do was walk slowly to rebuild the atrophied muscles on that leg. 10 min was very strenuous exercise at the time. Now I would hardly record any walking I do. It's not significant compared to the rest of my activities.0 -
For me, walking did not help me lose weight, but man, did it improve my fitness! I remember being winded walking around the block when I started walking my neighbor's Siberian husky, Shiloh. Now, a year later, I can easily walk several miles with her, around the block, around the park, and back again. Now that I've started tracking meals on MFP, I've started losing weight, too, so I suspect I could have been doing so all along if I'd been watching my calorie intake when I started.0
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