PT health Life – Walking and jogging both help burn calories, good for weight loss or weight maintenance. So should you choose walking or jogging?
Walking and jogging are exercises that many people choose because they bring many health benefits and are easy to do.
Especially for the elderly , walking and jogging not only help improve health but also help keep the spirit happy.
1. Benefits of walking and jogging
Maintaining physical activity for each person is extremely important. Walking is chosen by many people to maintain physical activity because it is safe and easy to do.
Walking brings health benefits such as:
- Maintain a stable weight, lose weight
- Strengthen muscle strength
- Helps reduce the risk of heart diseases such as stroke , diabetes , gastrointestinal cancer …
- For people with hypertension, walking helps reduce blood pressure
- Reduces the risk of osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. For people over 45 years old, walking regularly can reduce the risk of bone fractures by 50%.
- Improving mental health helps improve mood, reduce anxiety and depression
Besides walking, jogging is also a form of exercise that brings many health benefits. Studies show that running brings benefits such as:
- Increasing insulin sensitivity thereby reduces the risk of diabetes
- Reduces the risk of cancer and the risk of death from cardiovascular disease as well as death from other causes
- Improve cholesterol and blood fat status
- Helps improve bone density
- Anti-inflammatory
- Improve mental health, reduce the risk of anxiety and depression
2. Is jogging better than walking?
If you replace walking with jogging, your body will receive more benefits. And for people aged 45 and over, jogging is considered a smart choice as you get older. Compared to walking, jogging helps the body burn more calories and lose weight better.
Besides, running is also a full-body exercise that requires flexibility and coordination between body parts to maintain balance. Just 30 minutes of jogging a day can help you lose weight, improve cardiovascular health and mental health…
From the above benefits, is running better than walking? In general, exercise such as jogging or walking is better than no exercise. Depending on each person’s physical condition, running will have profound effects on health. Above all, you need to make sure you move more and more often.
A recommendation for people over 65 years old is to maintain 30 minutes of exercise a day with moderate intensity: walking at a steady pace, walking fast, climbing hills, climbing stairs…
If you have health problems or chronic diseases, it is best to see your doctor for the best and most appropriate advice for exercise and to limit possible injuries .
3. How to walk and jog effectively
To limit the risk of possible injury, you need to take the following steps:
– Warm up carefully and properly and don’t forget to stretch before and after running.
– Maintain training of important muscles that are helpful for effective walking and running (glutes, hamstrings, abdominal muscles…).
– You should start slowly and then gradually increase the frequency and intensity of walking and jogging. Please note the rule of avoiding increasing distance or intensity by more than 10% per week.
– You can warm up your body by walking then jogging, gradually shortening your walking time and increasing your jogging time. Or apply the strategy of running 5-10 seconds for 1 minute of walking and gradually increase the speed.
– You should set goals that are suitable for your physical condition and try to achieve them.
– Don’t forget to practice balance exercises to limit the risk of falls and injuries.
