How Fast Should You Walk for Better Heart Health?

Walking is a low-impact, accessible and free exercise. You don’t need much other than a pair of supportive shoes.

However, a simple walk around the neighborhood may not be strenuous enough to improve heart health. Here’s how vigorously you need to walk to elevate your heart rate and reap significant benefits.

How to know if you’re walking fast enough

Most adults will need to walk at a speed greater than 3 miles per hour to reduce their risk of heart disease. However, it can be difficult to gauge how fast you are walking unless you are on a treadmill.

One way to gauge your pace is to track your heart rate with a fitness machine. To estimate your optimal heart rate zone for exercise, start by subtracting your age from 220 to get your maximum heart rate. For moderate-intensity exercise, aim for 50 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate.

You can also use the conversation test to check your intensity. With moderate exercise, you should be able to talk but not sing. If you exercise vigorously, you should still manage a few words at a time without getting out of breath. Your pace may vary from day to day depending on how you feel.

“The goal is to feel better after you exercise, and you don’t need to overdo it,” Gerald Jerome, PhD, FAHA, a behavioral exercise scientist and professor in the department of kinesiology at Towson University, told Verywell. “Some days you might have less energy. Consider maintaining your routine even if you’re at a slower pace.”

Tips to Make Your Walks More Challenging

Your pace and intensity will depend on your fitness level. “Intensity is relative. What is a brisk walk for one person may be too fast or too slow for another,” Jerome said.

If you find that a walk in the park isn’t challenging enough, there are a few things you can do to increase the intensity:

How much should you walk each week

Adults need 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week, according to the most recent guidelines. If you can’t find an uninterrupted 30-minute walk, experts say you can still benefit from shorter, more frequent walks, like two 15-minute walks daily.

Jerome said that small changes, like parking further from your destination or taking the stairs instead of the elevator, also add up and count toward your overall daily activity.