Walking is a great form of exercise that you can’t overdo, unlike more intense physical activities like high-intensity interval training and strength training. Not only is it low-impact, it can be done virtually anywhere and doesn’t require any special equipment.
Walking is also a natural human activity, just like breathing, sleeping, and eating.One This gives us a clue that it is useful for fitness. Walking is suitable for beginners to experienced athletes, and its variety allows you to adjust the intensity and duration to suit your fitness level and achieve your fitness goals.
While increasing your pace, walking up an incline, or walking a longer distance are all useful ways to vary your walking routine, another way to increase the intensity of your walk is to wear a weighted vest. Weighted vests have their benefits, but they also come with some risks to watch out for.
Benefits of Wearing a Weighted Vest on Your Next Walk
The extra effort required to carry a weighted vest will get your heart beating much faster than regular walking, and can significantly improve your physical performance and health. The extra weight requires more energy to burn, so you burn more calories and improve your cardiovascular health than if you were walking without the extra weight.
It also helps you build strength and endurance by using more muscle. In a study of 11 women aged 65 to 74 who participated in an exercise program wearing a weight vest, lower body strength improved by 10 to 11 percent, and stair climbing time improved by 9 percent. Stair climbing strength also improved by 10 percent.
“The magnitude of the training improvements observed suggests that weighted step training has the potential to prolong independence and prevent age-related health problems such as sarcopenia,” the research team explained in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.2
Additionally, wearing a weighted vest can help boost your metabolism, maintain strong bones, and make everyday tasks easier. The added weight of a weighted vest can help stimulate bone growth.three And it maintains bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis. Another study looked at how wearing a weighted vest affected oxygen use, exercise intensity, vertical ground reaction force, and body loading speed while walking on a treadmill.4
Ten young adults wore vests weighing 0%, 10%, 15%, or 20% of their body mass index and walked on a treadmill at various speeds. Researchers measured how much oxygen they used, how hard they worked, and the force they exerted on their feet and legs.
Wearing a weighted vest was shown to increase oxygen use and exercise intensity, especially at higher speeds. The force and impact rate applied to the participants’ legs were also higher when wearing a weighted vest. The researchers concluded that wearing a weighted vest while walking increased the energy required, made the exercise more intense, and placed more stress on the bones and muscles.
Another study of 20 people found that wearing a weighted vest weighing 20 pounds (men) and 14 pounds (women) increased physical effort while walking on a treadmill at a 10 percent incline.5 However, there was no change in the way the subjects walked or ran, and there was no increase in the risk of lower extremity injuries.
Are humans made to carry heavy burdens?
Many people choose running for exercise, but Michael Easter, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, argues that we are not born to run, but to carry loads.
“As we evolved, running was relatively rare. It was reserved primarily for hunting. Modern tribes like the Tarahumara, for example, do not run for fun. Running is reserved for rare hunts and religious ceremonies… Carrying loads, on the other hand, is something we humans have always done as we evolved, so all the evidence suggests that we are ‘born to carry loads,’” he writes.6
As hunter-gatherers, humans routinely carried loads of 10 to 20 pounds. After hunting, humans also carried larger loads, up to 80 pounds. The agricultural revolution changed human carrying needs, and our physical health may still suffer from it. According to Easter:7
“New technology has eliminated the need for running and carrying. We've gone from mules and oxen to carrying packs, to shopping carts, to suitcases on wheels, to having Amazon Prime deliver everything to your doorstep. But unlike running, most people haven't redesigned carrying. Except for lurchers.”
The term rucking comes from the rucksack marches or rucks, a strenuous exercise commonly used in military training camps. However, rucking, which involves walking or hiking with a weighted backpack, has also become popular as a fitness activity for civilians looking to improve endurance and build muscle.
Similar to wearing a weighted vest, rugging combines the benefits of cardiovascular exercise with strength training, with the added weight increasing the physical demands on your body. Additionally, walking with a weighted pack will burn more calories than walking without it, approximately 30% to 45% more.8 Rucking not only works all the muscles you normally use while walking, but also uses the muscles in your legs, back, shoulders, and torso throughout the activity.9
One study of weighted walking found that weighted walking led to significant improvements in psychophysical responses after 10 weeks, including increases in squat jump maximal strength, push-ups, sit-ups, and estimated maximal oxygen uptake.10
What are the risks of walking with a weighted vest?
Wearing a weighted vest can pose a risk of injury, especially if the weight is too heavy or if you have a pre-existing condition such as arthritis. The added weight can increase the stress on your joints, especially your knees, hips, and ankles, which can cause joint pain or worsen existing joint problems.
Improper use of a weighted vest can also affect your posture. If the weight is not distributed evenly or you compensate by changing your gait, you may experience imbalances and musculoskeletal problems (e.g., back pain or shoulder tension). Also keep in mind that if you are walking in hot weather, the vest may tire you out more quickly and make it harder for you to cool down.11
To minimize these risks, it is important to start with light weights and gradually increase the load as your body adapts. Also, ensuring proper fit and weight distribution, maintaining proper posture, and allowing sufficient recovery time can help avoid potential problems. The vest should be comfortable, evenly weighted, and not restrict movement or breathing.
An ill-fitting vest can cause discomfort and increase the risk of injury. As your strength and endurance improve, you can gradually increase the weight to a specially designed pack with wide, padded shoulder and waist straps to evenly distribute the weight. Add only 5 to 10 pounds at a time, and eventually work your way up to carrying one-third of your body weight.12
Why Walking Is Good for You
If you are new to exercise or have been inactive for a while, it is best to start walking without a weighted vest until you have built a solid fitness foundation. Even simple walking can lead to impressive fitness gains without the risk of overdoing it.
It’s important to understand that too much exercise can be counterproductive. A groundbreaking study that fundamentally changed my view of exercise was published by Dr. James O’Keefe, a cardiologist at the Mid-America Heart Institute at St. Louis Hospital in Kansas City, and three co-authors.13
Starting sedentary exercise is associated with dose-dependent reductions in mortality, diabetes, depression, hypertension, coronary artery disease, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and falls. However, those who do the most vigorous exercise begin to lose the longevity benefits. If you do a full-distance triathlon in your 40s and 50s, your risk of atrial fibrillation increases by 500% to 800%.
However, for moderate exercise (loosely defined as exercise that leaves you slightly out of breath but still able to carry on a conversation), there is clear evidence that more is better and that you cannot overdo it.
To achieve these goals, walking is a powerful anti-aging intervention that can reduce the risk of chronic age-related diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and cancer, as well as relieve pain and improve function in musculoskeletal disorders.14 Other benefits of walking include improved sleep and increased resilience.
Walking may help reverse fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms of aging.15 It restores your mitochondria. Exercise stimulates the creation of new mitochondria and helps existing mitochondria work better, more efficiently, and produce more energy. If you don’t take steps to protect your mitochondrial health, your mitochondria can become damaged as you age, producing less energy.16
For example, one study found that regular, low-intensity walking could significantly improve mitochondrial health in people with impaired glucose tolerance.17 Researchers observed increased expression of genes related to mitochondria in skeletal muscle after participants engaged in a four-month walking program.
These genes are involved in creating new mitochondria and enhancing their function. In essence, walking encouraged the body to produce more and better-performing mitochondria in the muscles.18
Walking offers benefits to both mind and body
Whether you walk alone or with a group, walking has psychological and physical benefits, especially when you walk in a natural setting, as researcher Marta Anna Jurawijk explains in the journal Human Movement:19
“For many people, walking alone in a natural setting is preferable because it allows them to connect more closely with nature. In isolation, individuals seek to withdraw from complex social environments over which they have little control.
So walking alone provides a pleasant antidote to stress and mental fatigue through interaction with the physical environment: aesthetics, a fascination with the countryside, an experience of escape from the daily routine, and a distance from the stresses and problems of everyday life.”
That is, walking with others provides social benefits that can alleviate loneliness and isolation.20
“Group walking is a form of social interaction that provides a sense of togetherness even when one is alone among strangers, because walking allows walkers to maintain a sense of intimacy and familiarity with the community and a sense of belonging to a special group. Over time, that group may become the center of one's social life.
Group walks in natural settings may have a greater impact on well-being than walking alone because they provide a social setting for interaction, developing and strengthening friendships, and expressing and sharing interests. This form of supportive sociality and emotional closeness may provide significant benefits to social well-being by overcoming feelings of loneliness and isolation.”
How much walking is best?
The ideal amount of walking depends on your age, health goals, and fitness level. You should also consider whether you wear a weighted vest. The average American walks about 3,800 steps a day, which is just under two miles. That's about 2,000 steps per mile, and for every 1,000 steps you take per day, your risk of death drops by 10 percent to 15 percent, O'Keefe says. In an interview, he explained:
“There are more and more studies on this using activity trackers all the time. We have big data like the UK Biobank, which has half a million people, many of whom wear activity trackers and have been followed for 10 years.
Obviously, more is better. You get huge benefits from a sedentary lifestyle. Going from 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day to 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day. (Here) you get a very dramatic decrease in mortality and an improvement in survival. And that continues up to 12,000 steps a day. Most studies show that it peaks at 12,000 steps a day.”
To make sure you’re getting the right amount of walking, it’s a good idea to track your steps with a fitness tracker like the Oura ring. Most phones have free activity trackers, so if you’re in a pinch, you can take your phone with you. It’s not ideal because of the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) it emits, but you can reduce the risk by putting it in airplane mode or, better yet, putting it in a Faraday bag.
