Walking vs. Weightlifting? Which one has the greater overall benefit or return on investment (ROI)?
This is a question that came up recently as it pertains to managing Prediabetes, for which exercise plays a unique role with blood sugar control.
While it is tempting to just say they are not mutually exclusive, and you can do both, I think there is more to say than that.
So I’ll start with, if you have to choose something vs. nothing on any given day: walking wins, hands down. If you want to exercise but can’t make it to the gym today, a 10-20 minute walk is so much better than nothing, and it’s one of the easiest things to start in our modern, busy lives. Silence your phone and just walk out the front door! Ahh that’s better. It stimulates the circulatory and lymphatic system, increases your heart rate and respiration, puts some necessary but low stress on your muscles and joints, and revs up your metabolism.
I will say that if you have unique circumstances, like living in a climate with seasonal extremes (e.g. below freezing temperatures outside), you may find walking on a treadmill, rowing, or lifting weights indoors to be more accessible and thus can skew your exercise priorities accordingly. But I can hardly think of anything more fundamental than being able to walk, and it is the thing you will miss the most if you have your activity restricted for some reason.
If you have ever had the fortune (without labeling good or bad here) of spending some time in hospitals yourself, or with a friend or family member — you know that walking with assistance is where exercise starts in earnest again after being laid up for a period of time. Down the hall and back, 1 rep. Ok now rest and go again. If you’ve been there, you know it’s real and it matters.
It’s also basic to acquiring food and being able to go to the bathroom. DoorDash will only bring it to the door :).
Sounds good, why not just walk then? Scalability, adaptability, and body composition control. Walking is hard to scale up to a point of additional utility, to build muscle for example. You can walk faster, and climb hills or use a Stairmaster, but it’s not as potent, and challenging to make progress the way strength training with a barbell allows.
You also move in a limited range of motion when walking, which gives poor translation to other necessary movements of life. Your joints don’t flex and extend to their potential while walking, which makes you more liable for injury on the occasions when you do need to move in different ways. To pick something up off the floor, that’s a Deadlift. To bring your center of gravity down to a sit position — to rest during your walk for example — that’s a Squat. You do them everyday and they are unavoidable. Walking also stresses your body in the same way repeatedly — which can lead to some overuse issues — while lifting allows you to rotate exercises to facilitate long-term balance in the forces at each joint.
Finally, there’s body composition control, which is one of the perhaps lesser known benefits of Weightlifting as compared to other activities. The Squat and Deadlift are the most potent tools we know of to positively affect your muscle mass and bone density, which are increasing liabilities as we age, especially as it relates to balance and falling. To keep your hips stable and strong, your knees healthy and resilient, and to build a surplus of muscle and strength that will carry you for years to come, you need to work with the main Weightlifting movements that can challenge you enough to build some muscle and bone density. My own Dad recently squatted 95 lbs for 5 reps for the first time. Not bad for 69 years young! That’s a 95 lb surplus of strength that will keep him functional and enjoying life for many years to come.
One of the nice benefits of increased muscle mass is the linear relationship to your metabolism: more muscle = higher Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). If you’re trying to control your blood sugar levels or simply manage your daily energy balance (calories in vs. out), one of the best and most efficient ways to do it is by increasing your muscle mass through strength training, to elevate your BMR.
In summary, Walking is the most important type of movement there is for humans, and the way to be free and able to keep doing it long-term is to make Weightlifting a regular part of your movement practice, which will in turn unlock a host of other benefits towards your long-term Health and Wellness.
Coach Mauricio