If I read one more time that walking is the best exercise, I’m going to take a few steps and scream. This article is about how to make walking a better exercise. True, walking is the most practicable exercise. You can pretty much do it anywhere anytime. That is no small thing.
The problem is that ordinary walking won’t push your heartbeat rate into the same zone as running or a fast bicycle ride or even a game of pickleball, one study found. Why does intensity matter? Vigorous workouts are a more efficient way of getting fit, says cardiologist Matthew Nayor, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Medicine, who tested the fitness of more than 3,000 participants in the Framingham Heart Study. He found that a minute of moderate to vigorous exercise had the same benefit as two or three minutes of light exercise. How do you know if the exercise is vigorous enough? If you can carry on a conversation easily, it is probably moderate exercise, Nayor says. “If the sentences get shorter, and it is harder to carry on a conversation, you’re headed toward vigorous exercise.” There are simple tricks you can use to transform leisurely walks into intense exercise. That includes walking up hills, carrying a weighted backpack, or working a few sprints into your daily perambulation. Perhaps the best trick of all is to walk really fast. I have done all these things since Aug. 14, the day I turned my bicycle too sharply onto a gravel road near my New Jersey home and was slammed down, bre …