Jogging vs Walking: How to Achieve Your Fitness Goals

Jogging vs walking for fitness often comes to mind for people who have begun a diet and want to improve their weight loss and overall health. The simple answer is that while both walking and jogging will help you lose weight and make you healthier, jogging gives you a more intensive workout. What this means is that you burn more calories jogging 5 miles than you do by walking 5 miles. That being said there are some things you should consider when thinking about a jogging vs walking regime for the first time.

Your Beginning Physical Condition

If you have not been doing any real exercise for a lengthy period of time or if you are an older individual and want to start a daily exercise regime you may consider jogging vs walking depending on your fitness level. Including walking and jogging may be your best bet and begin by walking a short distance daily and gradually increase that distance as your stamina begins to build up. Once you can walk three to five miles daily with no shortness of breath and no muscle tiredness in your legs then you can pick up the pace and begin power walking, when that becomes comfortable then try walking two miles, jogging a mile and walking the last two. You can gradually begin jogging more and more distance as your stamina improves.

Always Begin A Jog With Stretching Exercises

You should never begin a jog without stretching exercises. One way to get in your stretching is by beginning with a brisk walk of a half mile or so and then slowly pick up your pace until you are jogging the distance and then walk again at the end of your jog to cool down. This will help your muscles stay supple and make the chances of cramping much less.

Many people enjoy combining walking and jogging and find that doing the two together gives them a much smoother workout while others prefer to simply jog once they are fit enough to do so. Both methods work well and it's really a personal preference. Remember however, that jogging is a high impact activity and can cause stress to knees and ankles. Be sure to invest in a good pair of running shoes to minimize injuries. If you begin to feel such stress it is always better to limit your exercising to walking until the condition improves to avoid serious damage to knee or ankle joints.

Combining Jogging and Walking May Be The Healthiest Choice

A combination of jogging and walking may be the healthiest choice when all things are considered. While jogging certainly does burn calories faster and gives your heart and lungs an excellent workout as well as stretches your muscles and keeps them supple the continuous high impact caused by jogging over a long period of time may cause knee, hip and ankle problems. For that reason it may work better for you to jog four or five days a week and walk for the other two or three days.

Rather than jogging vs walking consider using a combination of walking and jogging to get all the healthier benefits of jogging while allowing some rest on the walking days for the joints most affected by the high impact of jogging. This may prolong the amount of years you can jog pain free.

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