What is “walk fast”? Discover healthy speed

You want to know how much exercise you should do to keep fit and they advise you, for example, to walk 7-8 kilometers a day at a brisk pace. And speed is the key, because if you go too slow, as if you were walking, you can’t expect all possible benefits of your exercise session.

But what is going at a brisk or brisk pace? What is slow for some is not fast for others? Isn’t that a very subjective assessment? Yes, it is, which is why experts such as Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke have wanted to refine.

The perfect pace of a healthy walk

The first answer of an expert may be: the speed must be sufficient to multiply by three the metabolic rate Resting. Which doesn’t clarify much.

Another typical response from a specialist would be: the appropriate speed is the one that requires 70% of our maximum heart rate. This not only does not offer us understandable advice, but also raises the question of what the maximum heart rate will be.

You can sing?

The US Government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers more lyrical advice: The brisk walk is one that allows you to talk, but not sing. But it takes a quirky person to sing along during your workout for technical checks.

Catrine Tudor-Locke, of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has published a study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine to settle the matter once and for all.

Around 100 strides per minute

After analyzing the 38 most rigorous studies on physical exercise, health benefits, and heart rate, respiratory rate, metabolic rates, different body mass indexes, age, and other variables, he found an almost millimeter answer: The brisk pace is one that covers 4.3 kms per hour. In other words, 100 strides per minute (that is, almost two per second). These figures are already quite concrete and practical.

You don’t need any app or a gadget wrapped around your arm. Count the steps you take in 10 seconds and multiply by 6 to find your pace.

It is a speed that is comfortable, not strenuous, for most people. If you are in very good physical shape and are under 60 years of age you can take a few more strides per minute, says Tudor-Locke.

For how long?

Once we know precisely what the appropriate pace is, we are left to clarify the time or distance. The Massachusetts doctor suggests a minimum of 3,000 brisk steps a day or, what is the same, half an hour of walking.

The number of calories that are burned in half an hour of light walking depends on factors such as body weight, the slope of the terrain or the temperature, but, on average, we can burn about 250 calories.

Exercising with the aforementioned requirements produces a general benefit for our health: for the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, for the brain, immunity or the musculoskeletal system.

But if we feel comfortable, we can go from “light” to “big” walking. Tudor-Locke doesn’t mince words: the pace of a scientifically vigorous walk is 130 steps per minute. A little more -140 steps- and you will be running.

Stretching, strength, balance

So far we have been referring to aerobic exercise, which requires an effort from the respiratory system and the heart. But to take care of health it also requires muscular effort, balance and body awareness.

For this reason, a complete physical activity requires another type of complementary exercises: stretching or yoga, Pilates or exercises with weights or machines, tai chi and chi kung are some practices and disciplines that help us work on these aspects.