Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times  has a featured article this morning entitled, “Running vs. Walking: Which Is Better for Lasting Health?”  It is a  balanced review of two of the most popular forms of exercise.  As someone who has had a knee replacement and reconstructive ankle surgery, I have become a regular walker averaging a little more than two miles per day. The article provides a number of useful suggestions for both forms.  I fully support the walking option. 

Below is an excerpt from the article.

Tony

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The New York Times

Running vs. Walking: Which Is Better for Lasting Health?

By Cindy Kuzma

Published Nov. 14, 2023

“Walking is among the world’s most popular forms of exercise, and far and away the most favored in the United States. And for good reason: It’s simple, accessible and effective. Taking regular walks lowers the risk of many health problems including anxiety, depression, diabetes and some cancers.

However, once your body becomes accustomed to walking, you might want to pick up the pace, said Alyssa Olenick, an exercise physiologist and postdoctoral research fellow in the energy metabolism lab at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

If you can nudge even part of your walk into a run, it offers many of the same physical and mental benefits in far less time. But just how much better is running? And how can you turn your walk into a run?

Why Walking Is Good for You

When considering the health benefits of an activity like walking or running, there are two connected factors to keep in mind. One is the workout’s effect on your fitness — that is, how it improves the efficiency of your heart and lungs. The second is the ultimate positive outcome: Does it help you live a longer life?

The gold standard for assessing fitness is VO2 max, a measure of how much oxygen your body uses when you’re exercising vigorously. It’s also a strong predictor of life span, said Dr. Allison Zielinski, a sports cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute.

Even doing a small amount of activity — like taking slow steps throughout the day — somewhat improves VO2 max compared with staying completely sedentary, according to a 2021 study of 2,000 middle-aged men and women. But bigger benefits come when you begin walking faster, which raises your heart and breathing rates.

If you’re working hard enough that you can still talk but not sing, you’ve crossed from light to moderate physical activity. Studies suggest that moderate activity strengthens your heart and creates new mitochondria, which produce fuel for your muscles, said Dr. Olenick.

What Makes Running Even Better

So how does running compare with walking? It’s more efficient, for one thing, said Duck-chul Lee, a professor of physical activity epidemiology at Iowa State University.

Why? It’s more than the increased speed. Rather than lifting one foot at a time, running involves a series of bounds. This requires more force, energy and power than walking, Dr. Olenick said. For many people first starting out, running at any pace — even a slow jog — will make your heart and lungs work harder. That can raise your level of effort to what’s known as vigorous activity, meaning you’re breathing hard enough that you can speak only a few words at a time.

Federal health guidelines recommend 150 minutes to 300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, like brisk walking, or half as much for vigorous activity. That might suggest that running is twice as good as walking. But when it comes to the key outcome of longevity, some studies have found running to be even more effective than that.

In 2011, researchers in Taiwan asked more than 400,000 adults how much vigorous exercise (like jogging or running) and moderate exercise (like brisk walking) they did. They found that regular five-minute runs extended subjects’ life spans as much as going for 15-minute walks did. Regular 25-minute runs and 105-minute walks each resulted in about a 35 percent lower risk of dying during the following eight years.

Those numbers make sense, given running’s effect on fitness. In a 2014 study, Dr. Lee and his colleagues found that regular runners — including those jogging slower than 6 miles per hour — were 30 percent fitter than walkers and sedentary people. They also had a 30 percent lower risk of dying over the next 15 years.

Even though he’s an enthusiastic proponent of running, Dr. Lee suggested looking at walking and running as being on a continuum. “The biggest benefit occurs when moving from none to a little” exercise, he said.

Whether you’re walking or running, consistency matters most. But after that, adding at least some vigorous exercise to your routine will increase the benefits.”