5 ms·

Running is much more beneficial as you are in completely different heart rate zones as a simple walk. Don't use the step count itself as a goal.

by jupp0r 3y ago

hombre_fatal 3y ago
I still run. But I walk too. And I now don't feel like I'm messing up any sort of pace metric when my run becomes a walk or a phone call or I drop and do 30 pushups every kilometer, etc. It led to a large increase of daily activity. It's like how I became a home cook when I bought my first bluetooth headphones. Suddenly I could comfortably listen to Youtube debates and podcasts and audiobooks, needed something to do with my hands while listening to them, and ended up learning to enjoy spending time in the kitchen. It's funny how little changes can have a large impact on your daily life.
- Loic 3y ago
  All these little changes reduced friction in the right direction.
rainsford 3y ago
Running is better than walking, but walking a lot is probably better than running a little. This is not a fitness tracker specific observation and I'm sure it varies from person to person, but my experience has been that if I look for opportunities to just be active rather than focus on more strenuous exercise, I tend to engage in a lot more physical activity. In my case, I think the increase in overall active time probably balances out the fact that the activity is at a lower level, especially since I end up fitting the extra active time in where it's likely replacing no activity at all rather than replacing more beneficial exercise. As I said, this isn't really a fitness tracker specific experience since I don't actually use one. But I think there's some interesting psychology at work here that a fitness tracker probably amplifies. Aside from people with certain health issues, "walk more" is a pretty easy task with a very low bar to entry compared to the health benefits. You likely don't need special equipment or a membership to anything or a change of clothes or a shower after and it's pretty easy to feel like you can fit into your day even if you're tired or busy. You could reasonably argue that going for a run after work isn't that much more of a heavy lift than going for a walk, but I'd bet good money that I'm not alone in feeling like it is a lot of days. And that ultimately matters in terms of how likely people are to actually be active.
idontwantthis 3y ago
Don’t exercise because other exercise is better. This is the path of inaction.
stephen_g 3y ago
I think both are good for different kinds of endurance, so it would seem good to do both - brisk walking for the slow burn some times, and high intensity (or interval training) to get the heart rate right up other times.
brnt 3y ago
Running is pretty bad for joints. If you want to get your heart rate up, get on a bike.
- lloeki 3y ago
  If there's one thing the human body has evolved to do over aeons it's running. One can marvel at a slow motion video capture of a sprinting cheetah - the fastest running mammal -, where every bit of their body springs into beautifully orchestrated action. One can equally marvel at the same capture of the ruthless efficiency of an endurance running human - the longest running mammal, by far. Every bit of the human body engages towards that efficiency, from kinetic action via immediate energy storage and release via tendon springiness (not just in legs but all the way through the upper body, recovering vertical fall energy, as well as lateral counterbalance motion to be released for forward motion) to the cardiovascular system acting as a massive thermal regulator (via breathing mostly, blood and lung moisture as heat carrying fluids, but also fingers+hands that move for balance double as finned heatsinks), enabling the evolutionary prey hunting strategy of outrunning them to exhaustion. Running does not damage joints because that's what we evolved to be ever since we started standing upright and to be able to do so as long as possible both in duration and age, and even if we take a hypothesis of extreme selective pressure since the days when food started coming from fields and livestock, a few thousand years would have barely put a dent on our physiology being evolutionarily built for running; instead, running with no or bad warmup by stomping on concrete with bad or unfit shoes and bad posture biased by our modern sitting-all-the-time world does.
  - Lio 3y ago
    I've heard this before[1] but anecdotally I just know lots of serious runners with serious injuries, to the point of needing surgery. If you're in a running club I bet you do too. I don't know any cyclists or swimmers where the sport by itself has caused that kind of damage. Myself, running gave me rather unpleasant sciatica by inflaming a tight psoas muscle. I can compare it to road cycling and it's night and day. I can ride a 150 miler when I'm not that fit or flexible and once the tiredness has worn off I'll have no issues. I remember running a half marathon once when I was fit but without long, structured training and I was limping around for a week afterwards. You could argue that's due to improper training or warm ups/downs, etc. but it just seems that running is very hard on the body for something we're evolved to do above everything else. Anecdotally, I also know several cyclists in their 80s still riding about happily. I'd guess they'll ride until they don't want to any more and not because of injury. - 1. I think it was the premise of the book "Born to Run".

Running is much more beneficial as you are in completely different heart rate zones as a simple walk. Don't use the step count itself as a goal.

by jupp0r 3y ago

Running is much more beneficial as you are in completely different heart rate zones as a simple walk. Don't use the step count itself as a goal.

hombre_fatal 3y ago

I still run. But I walk too. And I now don't feel like I'm messing up any sort of pace metric when my run becomes a walk or a phone call or I drop and do 30 pushups every kilometer, etc. It led to a large increase of daily activity. It's like how I became a home cook when I bought my first bluetooth headphones. Suddenly I could comfortably listen to Youtube debates and podcasts and audiobooks, needed something to do with my hands while listening to them, and ended up learning to enjoy spending time in the kitchen. It's funny how little changes can have a large impact on your daily life.

Loic 3y ago
All these little changes reduced friction in the right direction.

rainsford 3y ago

Running is better than walking, but walking a lot is probably better than running a little. This is not a fitness tracker specific observation and I'm sure it varies from person to person, but my experience has been that if I look for opportunities to just be active rather than focus on more strenuous exercise, I tend to engage in a lot more physical activity. In my case, I think the increase in overall active time probably balances out the fact that the activity is at a lower level, especially since I end up fitting the extra active time in where it's likely replacing no activity at all rather than replacing more beneficial exercise. As I said, this isn't really a fitness tracker specific experience since I don't actually use one. But I think there's some interesting psychology at work here that a fitness tracker probably amplifies. Aside from people with certain health issues, "walk more" is a pretty easy task with a very low bar to entry compared to the health benefits. You likely don't need special equipment or a membership to anything or a change of clothes or a shower after and it's pretty easy to feel like you can fit into your day even if you're tired or busy. You could reasonably argue that going for a run after work isn't that much more of a heavy lift than going for a walk, but I'd bet good money that I'm not alone in feeling like it is a lot of days. And that ultimately matters in terms of how likely people are to actually be active.

idontwantthis 3y ago

Don’t exercise because other exercise is better. This is the path of inaction.

stephen_g 3y ago

I think both are good for different kinds of endurance, so it would seem good to do both - brisk walking for the slow burn some times, and high intensity (or interval training) to get the heart rate right up other times.

brnt 3y ago

Running is pretty bad for joints. If you want to get your heart rate up, get on a bike.

lloeki 3y ago
If there's one thing the human body has evolved to do over aeons it's running. One can marvel at a slow motion video capture of a sprinting cheetah - the fastest running mammal -, where every bit of their body springs into beautifully orchestrated action. One can equally marvel at the same capture of the ruthless efficiency of an endurance running human - the longest running mammal, by far. Every bit of the human body engages towards that efficiency, from kinetic action via immediate energy storage and release via tendon springiness (not just in legs but all the way through the upper body, recovering vertical fall energy, as well as lateral counterbalance motion to be released for forward motion) to the cardiovascular system acting as a massive thermal regulator (via breathing mostly, blood and lung moisture as heat carrying fluids, but also fingers+hands that move for balance double as finned heatsinks), enabling the evolutionary prey hunting strategy of outrunning them to exhaustion. Running does not damage joints because that's what we evolved to be ever since we started standing upright and to be able to do so as long as possible both in duration and age, and even if we take a hypothesis of extreme selective pressure since the days when food started coming from fields and livestock, a few thousand years would have barely put a dent on our physiology being evolutionarily built for running; instead, running with no or bad warmup by stomping on concrete with bad or unfit shoes and bad posture biased by our modern sitting-all-the-time world does.
- Lio 3y ago
  I've heard this before[1] but anecdotally I just know lots of serious runners with serious injuries, to the point of needing surgery. If you're in a running club I bet you do too. I don't know any cyclists or swimmers where the sport by itself has caused that kind of damage. Myself, running gave me rather unpleasant sciatica by inflaming a tight psoas muscle. I can compare it to road cycling and it's night and day. I can ride a 150 miler when I'm not that fit or flexible and once the tiredness has worn off I'll have no issues. I remember running a half marathon once when I was fit but without long, structured training and I was limping around for a week afterwards. You could argue that's due to improper training or warm ups/downs, etc. but it just seems that running is very hard on the body for something we're evolved to do above everything else. Anecdotally, I also know several cyclists in their 80s still riding about happily. I'd guess they'll ride until they don't want to any more and not because of injury. - 1. I think it was the premise of the book "Born to Run".