So when it comes to getting ripped and reaching a low body fat percentage, I’m a really big fan of walking. Walking enables me to get lean easier, stay lean easier on top of obviously managing my diet begin a caloric deficit, doing resistance training, and all that other stuff.
Walking, I’m a really, really big fan of. Also from a personal development standpoint, I’ve actually done a video on how walking enhances my life and six different ways that you can walk more.
So definitely check out that video in the description below. But I still get a lot of questions about walking versus running. Why not just do running because you can burn more calories and the exact same amount of time or you can burn that same amount of calories that you have as a target in less time if you were to do running? So why did I choose walking? And also how you can decide for yourself? And in this video, I wanna give you four different criteria for choosing which activity is best for you and how much of each should you be focused on.
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And now, let’s dive into the good stuff. So the first criteria that you have to look at when deciding whether you wanna do more running or walking when you’re getting rip is your recovery capacity.
Let’s not forget this. If your goal is 10% body fat, if your goal is, let’s say, 8% body fat, you must prioritize resistance training. This is your bread and butter. This is your foundational activity.
And anything layered on top of that is a bonus that might help you but still should not compete with resistance training. And when I say compete, I mean for recovery because if you’re doing four sessions or let’s say three to five sessions of resistance training and then you’re starting to add three, four or five sessions of running on top of that, that running will start tapping into your recovery capacity.
And those resistance training sessions will start to suffer. And then you won’t be able to lift this hard. You won’t be able to progress as much and that will impair how much muscle you can retain and might actually cancel out any chance of you building muscle if you’re a beginner trying to get a rip.
So this is really something to keep in mind. Now, contrast that with walking. Walking doesn’t require that much recovery. If anything actually will help you recover more from hard workout sessions in the gym, or if you’re training at home these days.
This is really something you have to consider is your recovery capacity. Because running specifically is one of those activities that has a heavy eccentric component that caused a lot of muscle damage as well as puts a lot of stress in your tendons and your ligaments and your joints.
So this is something to really keep in mind when choosing between the activities. This is why I personally am a big fan of walking because I train really hard in the gym. And I notice anytime I had a bunch of cardio specifically running, it does start tapping into that recovery.
So I’m noticing my squats, my lunges, my deadlifts is just not as progressive. I’m not able to recover as much between those sessions. And now it’s pushing those sessions later in the future which then means I’m also missing out on some potential gains there.
So I do want to make sure that I’m prioritizing resistance training and you should be considering that as well. Now, this brings me to the second criteria, which is injuries. Running is quite injurious if you’re overweight.
If you’re someone who has 20, 30, 40, 50 pounds to lose, running is not the best idea. It’s not your best choice for cardio. This is where walking can really be a safe way for you to increase your energy expenditure, create a bigger caloric deficit and get the job done.
Now, you can add running later but for now, it’s probably not the best idea. And then if you’re someone who has some lower-body injuries or if you have some aches and pains, you find that you’re really tight.
And now you add a bunch of running on top of that. It can actually, in combination with resistance training cause an injury, which then will, of course, mean that you can train your lower body at all which can lead to a lot of muscle loss in a caloric deficit as you’re trying to get ripped.
So really from an injury perspective if you’re in that situation as described, now it’s better to go for a different type of cardio whether it’s something like cycling or just stick with walking, do some inclined treadmill, do some hiking, do some lower intensity stuff.
You’re gonna find yourself in a much, much better position to stay safe as you’ll losing weight. And obviously, later on, you can do a lot more running if you want to. Now, the third criteria that you have to look at are your individual hunger response to cardio.
And before we break this one down, I would really appreciate it, if you go below this video right now. Smash that like button as hard as you can. Helps a ton with the algorithm, so we can push this video to help more people.
So please go ahead, hit that like button. And moving on to the third component. We really have to look at how you respond. Because I know a ton of people that they do that 15-minute, that a 30-minute session of cardio or do a 20-minute HIIT session, they feel their hunger levels go down.
Now, I’m in the opposite category. And maybe you’re in the same category as me. We’re that percentage of people that if I do a 45-minute steady-state session or 20-minute HIIT session, I find that my hunger levels go through the roof.
And this really makes the diet side of things much more difficult for me, if my hunger levels are increasing. So I found that swapping running or any other form of cardio for more walking actually helps a lot especially when I’m in that 12 to 13% body fat range.
You want to get down to the 10% body fat range. When naturally, because the amount of leptin you have goes down, the hunger hormone ghrelin goes up. It really benefits you from also reducing hunger by picking which activity you do, if you’re, again, in the same category as me.
Now, if you’re the type of person that gets less hungry from doing HIIT, more power to you. Great, that’s awesome. You can add more HIIT. But if you’re like me, you do have to be careful here because that is the primary way to create that caloric deficit.
And it’s very, very easy to eat back any amount of calories you’ve burned through that cardio activity. And of course, had a lot more on top of that because you’re more hungry. So keep this in mind.
Hunger management is one of the key factors for getting ripped. It’s really the top priority. This is what I talk so much in this channel about. So never do stuff that actually makes you more hungry.
It just makes everything so much more difficult on that journey down to that 10% body fat level. Now, criteria number four. If you have to look at your psychology, is running something you really enjoy or are you dreading waking up in the morning, putting on your running shoes, and going for a run? It’s a really important question to ask yourself? Because if running is the depleting a lot of your self-control, if you’re starting your day is overusing willpower, well, that’s gonna affect your decisions in other areas of your life.
That’s gonna affect your nutrition. It’s going to affect your work, And overall, you’re not enjoying the process now. Now, compare that to walking. At least for me personally, I find walking to be a part of my lifestyle, whether I’m doing something with my physique or not, whether I’m cutting or bulking, whatever.
I think walking is just gonna be a part of my lifestyle. And I’m enjoying it, which makes such a huge difference long-term because it’s not depleting me. It’s adding value to me. So I’m not just looking forward to ending it, I just see it as a part of my life forever.
It’s just something that I like to do and just makes a big, big difference in your overall consistency with the process. So if you’re not enjoying it, consider swapping the activity for something that you do enjoy.
It will make a huge difference in your journey. The other thing that’s gonna makes a huge difference for your journey, if you do subscribe below to this channel. Make sure to hit the bell icon for notifications.
Details for coaching, if you want to work with me personally as your coach, are in the description below. So check out the description below for that. And I will see you in that next video.
