 Look for long-term fat loss success walking is superior to running. All right. Ooh, I like that I know I like that a lot ahead people's heads just spun right now when I said that. Well, you know cardio people I like that because it's also It's the opposite of what I thought and said to clients for the first probably five plus years of being here for me Yeah, maybe yeah, maybe ten. It's nice to myself. Maybe I was thinking five to eight Really it might have been ten and you know, I've shared on the podcast that you know Clients would fill out that form the park you right and they in one of the questions and there was always You know, what do you do for a form of exercise right now? And inevitably at least wanted every three people would say oh well my husband and I we walk every day It's golf. I would I would break in a sweat Yeah, I would totally say that they are it's a minimal amount of calories We're burning and that's insignificant to what we need to do if we want to lose 20 pounds And we're totally like shit all over there walking now the irony in that is fast-forward You know 20 years or 15 years later from that Me coaching somebody now and they and they come in and they say Adam I'm not doing anything really and I want to lose all this weight and I want this that that I'm willing to come in Seven days week the the stuff that I tell them now is like, okay All I want you to do is start with walking so it's like the exact opposite of how I thought You know 20 years ago So let's be clear first is put aside the performance effects of exercise Obviously if you're looking for stamina and endurance athletic performance running is going to be better So let's put that aside for a second. What are the what are the one of the I guess? Pluses or advantages of running over walking is it burns more calories per time being spent This is totally true. So if you do 30 minutes of walking versus 30 minutes of running you will burn more calories running Okay, but that's where the pros and here are the negatives most people don't know how to run I don't mean most people can't run. I mean most people don't run Properly it's a skill and most people stop running right around the age of 12 or at the latest Maybe when they stop playing college sports, and so they decide that you know lace up my running shoes I'm gonna go start going running now It's been you know 10 15 20 years since I ran and their form and technique is off they have muscle imbalances and In just issues with their technique and form and add to that People run not to learn how to run or to run well But rather they run to fatigue when they decide to go running So one of the worst things you could do for your form and technique if it's already bad It's to do it to fatigue and it's no wonder why running is the number one form of activity In relationship to injuries. It's the most you will produce the most injuries with running versus You run flat footed you have bad form like this is gonna impact your joints way more than people realize Yes, and it's just like that repetitive stress it really adds up especially if over time You know you're you gotta consider like arthritis and things that are gonna come as a result of that Yeah, now in contrast most people have not forgotten how to walk most people still walk every single day We haven't become walley yet, so maybe 20 years from now. It'll be different But people still walk so if someone goes to walk for activity We're not so worried about form technique, you know balance muscle imbalances You can walk because you walk all the time So there's that right there. Here's the second con of running You typically need to change your workout clothes or put on some workout clothes. You're gonna sweat It's not something you could just do in the middle of the day and then go to a meeting because it's not as convenient Walking is extremely convenient. I can do it any time of the day. Don't need to change my clothes I go out. I go for a walk and come back Super easy, so it's far easier to inject into your everyday life and this plays a huge role in Long-term consistency. This is by far the biggest I would say the most impactful factor with consistency is how easy can I inject this into my everyday Life and it's easy to do a 10 to 15 minute walk after breakfast lunch and dinner Which come out to 30 to 45 minutes of extra activity not as easy to go do a 15 minute run After breakfast lunch and dinner, especially if you're at work or you got other obligations It's very much so asops fables, right? That's tortoise in the hair. Isn't that where that is not where it came from? It is right, so it's very much so that right like The rabbit comes out and gets way ahead of the turtle But one's up happening the turtle wins the race right to ruin the he burns stuff out, right? And so I just think that that applies to real life Many times and that it's not just with cardio exercise I think a lot of times we we ride off that the motivation and the the energy and the hype and we make our Short-term decision based off of that current state that we're in and you know theoretically Yeah, I'm gonna run three or four days a week or every day And that's gonna get me to my goal and maybe the first couple weeks you stick to it But then life hits you and then the sustainability of that is just unrealized aside from all the points you bring up Which is the injuries and all and how inconvenient it is But it just it's not sustainable for the average person and I know by the way every time we do something like this Where we talk about running sorry We always piss off a you know fraction of the audience and the fraction of the audience that we always piss off Are the people that love to run I'm not I'm not speaking to you Yes Yeah, so I just want to make that clear that if you enjoy running and it's therapeutic for you And you're a good runner with good mechanics, and you don't you're not suffering from chronic pain And it's a meditative for you and you and you've been consistently I ain't talking to you keep doing it I'm all if I got a client you hired me and you said that to me. I would not say stop running I wouldn't work with what you got. Yeah, I wouldn't tell a client that no, but if I have a client who comes in Who is not doing anything for exercise and they want to lose weight? I am not going to suggest that to that person that is not a I don't think it is a smart strategy for over 90% of the population no, it's not a long-term strategy It requires a lot of effort work and coaching to get good at running if you're not somebody that's been running since you were a Child which is essentially what's required to maintain the skill now to be clear Humans did evolve to run and we're amazing runners when done properly But we lose that skill and nobody treats it like a skill like I know very little very few people We also evolved to throw a spear, right exactly how many fucking people to throw exactly so I know I know a very few people who decide I'm gonna go running and then say you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna really practice running. I'm gonna hire a coach. I'm gonna learn how to run properly I'm gonna look at my biomechanic. Nobody does that they say I'm gonna start running to work out Lace up their shoes and they go run until they're tired and the entire time especially as fatigue sets in Technique in form is absolutely terrible. I remember when this first really hit me I was going hiking and I saw runner after runner pass me up and you know I'm a trainer. So it's hard for me not to notice biomechanics and as people pass by like oh my god pro nation Whoa, really bad supination anterior pelvic till oh my god his shoulders are forward I could see all these injuries and then there was the rare Runner who ran by me that look like a gazelle like they look like they were running perfectly and it looked flawless and painless and it dawned on me like that's a skill just like any other skill and Unless you're gonna treat it like a skill Which by the way, there's a there's a long learning curve if you haven't run Consistently well for years It's gonna take you a good year of practice of skill acquisition of correcting muscle imbalances and mobility work and all that stuff To be able to do it walking doesn't have that walk that that Your average person can't even sit with good posture. Yes, totally It's what are we talking about? You know now we got to like get out there and run and do something like super strenuous like that when I can't Hold myself in good posture So it's you just have to consider what the very average person your everyday average person really looks like in their daily habits and Rituals and so that's why we're speaking more in that direction. Yeah, and the problem is when people make the comparison They're not using Realistic real-world context so when they do the comparison they say Running for 30 minutes builds this much VO to max burns this money calories Walking for 30 minutes does this and burns this many fewer calories. Therefore running is better But when you look at real-world context injury risk, you know How long it takes to build the skill of what you're trying to do how easy it is to inject into daily life What how long people tend to stay consistent doing each activity when you all add all of that up Which is the real world because those other stuff doesn't matter It's what actually happens a real world walking is superior when I got clients to walk instead of encouraging people to run Which is what I did early on People got way better results because they didn't hurt themselves. They were consistent. It was easy. It's easy Something you can build on so I could we could pause the podcast right now I could go for 15 minute walk come back and I'm okay If I go for a 15 minute run and I come back I gotta let I'm sweating maybe breathe It's not appropriate to do throughout the day for most people so to me That's the best argument is that is the is the consistency piece The end you know scaring somebody about injuries and there's gonna be always a percentage of people It's like I don't have any pain when I run. I feel just fine or a wall But I'll just go do the elliptical or a stair master and that doesn't bother me But the idea of selling somebody on building walks into their into their lifestyle I think is just more realistic to maintain that long term and to your point Justin It's very easy to kind of scale up. I would always start off with this Hey go for a 30 minute walk with you and your spouse after dinner every night is a great and what ends up happening is? They start to do something and they they like that it's like oh this becomes a part of my routine now to Sal's point I don't gotta change my clothes. I want to do something a little more intense Yeah, maybe on the weekends and I said to extend those those walks to two hour hikes where we go somewhere and somewhere beautiful And and and get more calories burned, but it's really just it's it's changing the lifestyle And I think that was in the behaviors. Yeah around that so I think that's the when you add all that up You get a greater real-world fat loss effect from walking and better health effect from walking You're still of course with running you're gonna build more endurance more stamina more athletic performance Which is fine if that's what you're looking for but most people are like look I just want to be fit and healthy I definitely want to have improved fitness and performance, but I'm not looking to go too crazy I want to be lean. I want to have good health. I don't want to have any pain And when you look at it in that through that lens Walking is just so so amazing and also by the way when you look at the longest living people in the world What they all have in common there's a few things that they have in combat, but one of them is just daily activity It's not even daily hardcore activity. It's just daily activity It's the 90 year old fisherman in Sardinia that you know goes out on his boat and fishes and walks You know and walks up the the hill to get the berries farmer that works their land, you know Yes, it's that kind of stuff. So this is what you need to consider and it's important to consider all of this when you're looking to Improve your fitness look at your goals and say what's realistic. What's actually gonna stick? because You know you might burn 25% less calories walking, but if you walk consistently every single day Versus a spotty record with running. It's gonna be more effective and that's just the bottom line Hey, if you enjoyed that clip you can find the full episode here Or you can find other clips over here and be sure to subscribe