10 Amazing Benefits of Walking

As you probably know from reading the Peluva blog, the 2025 book Born To Walk, written by Mark Sisson with Brad Kearns, challenges the foundational premise of the running boom as flawed, dated, and destructive. For the vast majority of participants, running is a bad idea: too strenuous to promote health and vitality, sending the genetic signals for fat storage instead of fat reduction, and highly injurious (research from around the world confirms that around 50% of regular runners are injured annually.) 

The truth is that the aerobic system develops best at low heart rates where fat can be the preferred fuel source, while glucose burning, stress hormone production and acid by-products from high intensity efforts are minimized. In essence, walking is the most beneficial form of aerobic conditioning for all but the elite athletes who can remain comfortable and 'fat burning' while jogging or running. Following are a selection of 10 awesome benefits from engaging in a walking-oriented lifestyle: 

1. Walking is universally health-boosting, delivers an excellent aerobic conditioning effect (even for fit runners); improves cardiovascular health, immune and digestive function; boosts fat metabolism; stabilizes energy, mood and appetite; and helps control inflammation.

2. Walking is not a fitness option but rather a hard-wired genetic requirement for human health, right up there with getting nutritious food, adequate sunlight, and sleep.

3. Walking is accessible to virtually everyone, while running requires extensive fitness capabilities and carries a high risk of injury and burnout. 

4. Walking delivers excellent “Zone 1” cardiovascular conditioning effects without the downside risk associated with slightly-too-strenuous endurance runs.

5. Walking makes you supple, mobile and flexible—unlike chronic cardio, which makes you creaky, achy, stiff, and sore. 

6. Walking is a stress-reliever, stimulates parasympathetic nervous system activity, and helps speed recovery from all forms of training, injury, and illness.

7. Walking helps boost blood circulation and oxygen delivery to the brain, improves neuron firing, alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety, and improves neuroplasticity.

8. We typically transition from a walking gait to a jog at 14 minutes-per-mile. If you can’t go faster than 14:00 at fat max, you should be walking, not running.

9. Going barefoot or wearing Peluva shoes with flat, flexible soles and individual toe articulation can safely strengthen feet and reduce injury risk; but you should walk, not run.

10. It’s not about the calories, it’s about the movement. Extensive daily walking improves fat metabolism, appetite regulation, and stress management–setting the stage for successful long-term weight management.