The Tiny Adjustment To Your Walking Speed That Yields Surprising Cardiovascular Rewards

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WHETHER OR NOT you count walking as a formal form of exercise, there are myriad reasons to get more steps into your typical routines. Along with the extra activity, walking more can help you improve cardiovascular fitness, lose weight, and promote joint health.
Plus, it's an easily scalable activity you can do anywhere with a sidewalk or a trail. To understand how better to challenge yourself on your walks, it's smart to measure how fast you're walking and about how many steps you're taking per mile—especially if you're wondering just how long it will take to walk a mile.
Those benchmarks can help incentivize you to reach for your sneakers more often, Michele Stanten, founder of MyWalkingCoach.com and author of The Walking Solution, says. Once you have those indicators, you can set walking goals that work for your lifestyle.
Get ready to start the stopwatch and take a lap around the block. Let's see how you stack up.
YOU'VE LIKELY HEARD many times over about all the reasons you should prioritize walking, but they deserve repeating.
'As soon as you get out there and you start moving your body, it reduces stress, [and] reduces tension,' says Stanten.
Walking is cardiovascular exercise, and this type of exercise helps to reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and lowers blood pressure, among other health perks, according to Stanten.
'Walking is so flexible and readily available,' she says. 'You can do it anywhere — from home, from work. You can do it by yourself. You can do it with people. You can do it in short bouts, long bouts—there's so many different ways to walk.'
Movement gets blood flowing to working muscles and lubricates joints, which can ease pain and stiffness, says Stanten. 'Walking is low impact,' she says. 'So, if you have any kind of joint problems, it's still an activity that most people can do.'
Even if you enjoy doing other types of exercise, walking is a simple and accessible way to stay active otherwise, she says. 'It's a great cross-training modality for runners or anybody doing higher impact exercise.'
BEFORE YOU THINK about how much you should be walking or consider setting a goal, assess how much you're currently walking, says Stanten. Go about your normal routine and track how many steps you've taken at the end of each day. Do this for a few days, and make sure at least one day is a weekday and one a weekend. Capture those results so you can have a baseline to increase from there.
You might be confused about exactly how many steps you should be getting every day. Is it 7,500, or is 10,000 still the magic number? Instead of thinking about step count, consider starting with the current Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity and two days of muscle strengthening activity per week. For cardio, that correlates to about 30 minutes, five days a week, 'which breaks down to three 10-minute walks a day, which is generally pretty doable,' says Stanten.
If you still find that counting steps is more motivating, she suggests trying to add another 500 or even 1,000 steps a day, if that feels doable.
ANOTHER WAY TO track your walking fitness is to gauge how long it takes you to walk a mile. 'In general most people will cover a mile somewhere between 15 to 20 minutes,' says Stanten. 'Fifteen is on the faster side, but [for] people who are working out, that 15-minute-per-mile pace is very reasonable.' If you find that you're closer to 20 minutes, and your goal is to walk a mile every day—or an additional mile daily— try breaking up your work into a pair of 10-minute walks, she says.
Ultimately, it doesn't matter how long it takes you to walk a mile, or whether you walk that mile consecutively or throughout the day. Simply increasing the amount of activity in your life and cutting down sedentary time will help you attain those mind and body benefits.
IF YOUR'RE INTERESTED in boosting your walking pace—whether to challenge your cardio fitness or just beat the train doors before they close—there are a few tricks and tips that can make a difference immediately, says Stanten.
Think about it: 'You don't run with our arms down at your side,' she says. 'You're going to walk faster with your arms bent.'
The biggest tip to improve your speed is to take short, quick steps, says Stanten. 'When people try to walk faster, they automatically start to take these big long steps, and that actually slows you down, and it puts a lot more stress on your joints,' she says. Stepping directly in front of you allows you to roll through the middle of your foot and push off your toes to keep your stride smoother, she says.
Avoid swinging arms side to side or having them cross your body as you move, says Stanten. 'Your hand should go back to about your hip and swing forward, but not above chest height.'
"Stand up nice and tall,' she says. 'Open up your chest. It's easier to breathe. Keep your abs tight; that's going to help.'
'People walk faster if they pick a spot ahead of them, and focus on that instead of looking around,' says Stanten. Pick someone who is walking ahead of you and try to mentally catch up to them.
Mix bouts of walking at your most intense pace, moderate pace, and recovery pace. Then track your time on a set route before intervals, and after to see how your pace progresses.
IF YOU'RE THINKING about how fast you're walking, you might also wonder exactly how many calories you'll burn walking a mile. This can be helpful info to have, especially if your fitness goals include losing weight. The answer here depends on a variety of factors, including your weight, how quickly you're moving, whether or not you're moving uphill, the terrain you're on, and how often you exercise.
Generally, though, the average 200 pound man will burn about 7.9 calories per minute of walking, Chris Gagliardi, ACE-CPT, C.S.C.S., told Men's Health. So, if you walk a 15-minute mile, and weigh close to 200 pounds, you'll burn about 120 calories per mile walked. If you increase the intensity of the movement by walking uphill, walking faster, or adding a weighted vest, you'll burn more calories in a shorter amount of time.
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