If you’re looking for some great cardio options, why not consider walking vs. jogging?

The Department of Health and Human Services posts Physical Activity Guidelines. The guidelines say that adults should do a minimum of 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate activity (like walking) or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity (like jogging or running).

There are great benefits to both forms of exercise (and many of those benefits overlap). But there are some drawbacks as well. There may be additional reasons for you to choose one over the other.

Benefits of Walking and Jogging

All exercise offers health benefits, and those who engage in walking and or jogging tend to experience:

• Higher quality sleep—exercising your body allows you to get good quality, deep, and restful sleep.
• Emotional wellness—exercise has long been known to be a natural antidepressant. It’s also key when it comes to helping alleviate anxiety and reduce stress.
• Elevated calorie burn—both activities burn lots of calories, which is important for keeping your body fat in the healthy range and maintaining optimal weight.
• Healthy heart—cardiovascular exercise will help keep your heart conditioned and strong.
• Improved immune system—you’ll find that you’re healthier overall due to regular exercise, and you’ll reduce your likelihood of many chronic conditions.
• What Are Your Goals?

As usual, your workout program and what’s best for you will be largely dependent on your fitness goals. What are you trying to achieve? Do you need to lose a lot of body fat? What is your current fitness level? For instance, it wouldn’t be wise to start with hour-long jogs if you’ve been sedentary for a long period. Easing back into exercise with some gentle walking would be your better bet.

You might also want to consider your timeframe. Are you on a deadline and trying to get in shape by a certain date for a specific event? Or, are you just looking to improve your health in general and adopt walking or jogging as part of your lifestyle?

Regardless of your goals, always remember to start slowly and build your strength and endurance as your body gets more conditioned with each workout.

Calorie Burn

You’re definitely going to burn a lot of calories with both walking and jogging. What about walking vs. jogging for the best calorie burn? It boils down to how much time and endurance you have. While you can burn the same number of calories with a walk as you can with a jog, you’ll burn them a lot faster by picking up the pace to jog or run.

What’s the difference? Vigorous activity will burn about twice as many calories in the same amount of time as moderate to lower-impact activity. So, loosely defined, you’ll have to walk about twice as long to burn the same number of calories as you would in a jog. So, a 20-minute jog would equal approximately a 40-minute walk when it comes to calorie burn, depending on how fast you’re going, of course.

Either way, walking vs. jogging, the calorie burn is high, and the effort is well worth it. If you’re short on time but high on energy, then maybe a jog is best for you, but if you have the time and want something less strenuous, then by all means, walking is your best friend.

Risks of Injury

Anytime you engage in exercise, you may face the risk of getting injured. This is true of both walking and jogging. However, jogging carries potentially more risk due to the higher impact nature of the movement. If you already suffer from bad knees, hips, or ankles, the jarring created by jogging may be too much. It can lead to overuse injuries like shin splints, stress fractures, and painful tendonitis. Although, if you work your way up to longer, faster jogs slowly over time, studies actually show a reduced risk of osteoarthritis and hip replacements versus other forms of exercise.

Walking is very low impact and is a great choice for beginners. It’s also a good choice for folks with injuries and those who may want to lose some weight first before turning up the heat with a regular jogging routine.

Start with slow walks and limit your time to 30 minutes or less until your body gets used to the exercise. As you get more fit and conditioned, you can start speeding up your pace and increasing your time. A good walking goal for many is to aim for at least 10,000 steps per day.

Do Both Walking and Jogging

Lastly, don’t be afraid to mix it up. You can use both walking and jogging to your benefit. Try walking every other day with a jog on the days in between. Or you can even do a walk-run. For example, after a five-minute walking warm-up, jog for 30 seconds. Resume walking for two minutes and then jog again for 30 seconds, etc. You can work your way up to longer jogs and shorter bouts of walking over time.

So, what’s the answer? What’s better for you: walking vs. jogging? The answer is either or both! Depending on your goals, your level of fitness, and your overall health, you can use either form of exercise to great benefit. The most important thing, however, will be… which one are you actually going to do?