Walking vs. Running: Part 3

Now onto running.

Let's begin by looking at the graph above. Remember the walk curve? (Blue dotted line from part 2). Now we're going to look at the red line labeled "running" floating above it.

Fundamentally, running is very different from walking. Not only from an energy consumption standpoint, but running produces an entirely different movement with your legs.

In part 2, I talked about your legs acting like pendulums during walking. The big difference in running is that your legs act like springs.

If you examine the red line on the graph you'll see the line hovers just above where the walk curve ends. Two reasons:

Running does burn more calories than walking. Second, to show fast walking and slow running are very close to each other. And that closeness produces the biggest calorie burn.

To explain,

Try an experiment next time you're in the gym. Walk slow on a treadmill. Then slowly increase your speed.

When you reach 4.6 - 5.3 mph (a fast walk) try not to run. You'll feel uncomfortable. You'll want to run. Notice now the difference between walking and running is so small, that you COULD do either.

But, at this threshold, it's more efficient for your body to run than walk. Due to the relationship between stride length, speed of your limbs, along with the center of mass in your body. And the fact your body is shifting from a pendulum like movement to the recoil movement of a spring.

But notice how the line starts to creep down as you increase your run speed? That's because you actually become more efficient as you run faster. In other words - you burn just a little less calories as run speed increases.

To summarize: The current research shows running does burn more calories than walking. We can see this by looking at the graph. The slowest running speeds use more transport cost than slow, regular, or fast walking.

In the end, the choice to run or walk is dependent on your goals, medical condition, and other factors. Both movements are excellent, with running having the slight edge in terms of using more calories / energy.