what is important when walking for exercise -- distance, speed or time ?

Question

i.e , is it how far you walk , or how fast you walk , or for how many minutes you walk ?

Answer 1

Distance. Other two are secondery.If you walk for one kilometer that is an exercise for which you spend some energy.If you walk fast you take less time.If you walk slow you take longer time.
So fix a distance and take your own time.

Answer 2

All three but more important are three other factors: 1) consistency and 2) the subjective feeling of the walker and, indeed, the 'identity of the walker himself or herself: meaning health history, age, injuries, etc.

Early walks, when trying to get back in shape, should be anywhere from 3-40 minutes long at a brisk comfortable conversational pace (that is you should NOT walk so fast that easy conversation would leave you breathless). A woman I wrote about in my health educator days was taking something like three dozen pills every day and had been confined to a nursing home. Her son a doctor visited her and with cooperation from the facilities' staff cut her pills first to eight and much later reduced her intake to two pills. He began by walking with his mother and found that she had to sit down after less than 50 yards. Many years later the woman, Eudora something or other at age 76 long since out on her own ran a ten mile road race but it obviously did not happen over night. She was a fiesty old broad and would cuss to herself when rain forced her inside to her exercise bike. The lessons for exercise are: A. Listen to your body B. Go extra slow at first C. Pain is a warning sign D. Your goal is to go further before you ever try to go faster E. Even short distances at exorbitantly long times, if they represent a moderate but somewhat tiring effort for you, can be highly beneficial E. Dress for the weather F. Wear proper footwear

By the way, here are the seven Golden Rules of Health that Eudora's son mapped out for her and all his patients:

1. Eat a good breakfast
2. Eat 3-5 light meals daily
3. Maintain a healthy normal weight
4. Enjoy 7-8 hours sleep nightly
5. Use no tobacco or drugs
6. Use alcohol in extreme moderation or not at all (six pack/weekly)
7. Regular vigorous exercise 40 min. daily 5-7 times weekly

According to a UC Berkeley study of vigorous old people these seven rules are the most shared health behaviors and IF a 55 year old man practices 6-7 of the rules his actuarial life expectancy is the same as a man of 20 who follows none or only one of the seven Golden Rules. In other words, they could be expected to die on the same day. Rule 8: Always buckle up when traveling in an automobile. Good luck.

Answer 3

If you are walking, I think a couple of things are important

- Speed : Since it is dependent on Distance and Time.
- If you maintain speed, you need to know for how LONG and how FAR can you go with that.
- I believe STAMINA is most important

Answer 4

It depends on how many calories you want to burn and how vigorous you want the work out to be...and how long you want to go! Different reports show that it can take 25 - 30 minutes to start the fat burning mode. Intensity (speed) will also determine how far you will go. A variety of hill and flat will provide variety and difficulty level to your work out. All elements together are pretty important. Happy walking :)

Answer 5

it depends. if you want a good cardiovascular workout, maintaining a relatively fast speed keep that heart pumping! you will need lots of stamina for this, so if that is what you need to build, walk a little faster than normal for an extended period of time. gradually increase your speed and time. if you want to sweat or walk off that dinner, it is best to go for a brisk walk for a long period of time. it is always advisable to cool down after a jog or run by walking at a normal pace for a few minutes.

Answer 6

It is a function of "work" in physics.

Work = distance x time.

Walking 1 mile at 2 mph = walking 2 miles at 1 mph

They will use the same amount of energy to get the same amount of "work" done. (Energy being Calories)

The best measure of exercise is time...the more time spent exercising the better off you are.

Answer 7

all of them because Doctor says walk at least 3 miles every day and with a speed which u can walk and defiantly time the more u exercises the more u became healthy

Answer 8

When you first start doing walking as a exercise you don't want to over do it. Work your way to a fast "walking" pace while doing a set time.

Answer 9

Consistency. Listen to your body, if you can go longer, further or faster then do so, if not don't. The most important thing is to keep doing it. As long as you can do it more often than you don't, then the speed, distance and time will come on their own.

Answer 10

At first thought it was the time.
Speed was never a problem for me, but the distance.

Right now distance matter as the further you walk/run, the more calories you burn.