December 15, 2022 • 9 min read
How Long Should I Walk On a Treadmill?
Published on December 15, 2022 |
Update on November 2, 2023
NASM Personal Trainer, NASM Fitness Nutrition Specialist, ACE Sports Conditioning Specialist, NASM Performance Enhancement Specialist
Table of Contents
You’re not alone if you’ve asked yourself at least once in your life, “How long should I walk on a treadmill to get the results I want?”
Walking is one of the simplest forms of exercise, yet it is still surrounded by plenty of confusion. We want to make it easier for people to design an appropriate walking routine!
In this article, we break down everything you need to know about walking on a treadmill, including how fast you should walk and how long you should walk, depending on your goals.
The amount of time required to walk on a treadmill differs widely among people as it depends on several parameters, including the following:
Before we dive into this guide on treadmill walking, we want to discuss one of the most important pieces of information that you’ll need to tailor your workouts to what will work best for you.
That piece of information is your maximum heart rate (MHR).
Your MHR is the highest number of times your heart should beat in one minute during physical activity.
Knowing your MHR can help you determine how hard you should push yourself while exercising, or in this case, walking on a treadmill.
To calculate your MHR, simply subtract your age from 220.
For example, if you’re 30 years old, your MHR would be 190 beats per minute (220 – 30 = 190).
Once you know your MHR, you can use it to determine the intensity of your workout sessions on a treadmill.
Continuing with the example above, let’s say the workout asks you to perform at 50% to 60% of your MHR. Once you have calculated your MHR, you can multiply that number by 0.5 or 0.6 to get 50% or 60% of your maximum heart rate.
Your heart rate should be between 95 and 114 while working out.
Now that you know how to calculate your maximum heart rate, let’s get to it!
From warm-up to workout, here are some guidelines to help you understand how long you should walk on a treadmill based on this information. [1]
Ideally, warm-ups should last between 5 to 10 minutes to get the blood flowing to the muscles without impairing energy levels or fitness performance. [2]
Within this time frame, aim to walk at a speed that enables your heart to achieve 50-60% of your maximum heart rate (MHR).
That will be the heart rate range you should sustain during your warm-up. To facilitate this, you can simply place your hands on the heart rate monitor of the treadmill you’re using.
However, if you’re walking outside or the treadmill doesn’t have an HR monitor, you can wear a wrist or a chest heart monitor.
If you want to have an effective cardio session to help improve your overall cardiovascular endurance, you should walk on a treadmill for a minimum of 30 to 60 minutes a day, five days a week.
In terms of your heart rate, aim for brisk walking or maintain a pace that raises your heart rate to 64-76% of your MHR. [1]
To lose weight, you should do a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, which equals 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
However, increasing the daily walking time to 35 minutes is even more effective in reducing body fat. [3] [4]
Related article: How Many Minutes of Exercise Per Week is Good?
How long you should walk on a treadmill to hit your daily 10,000-step goal depends on your height (due to stride and step length), gender, and pace.
For instance, a 160 cm tall person walking at 4 mph would take 75 minutes to achieve 10,000 steps, with an average of 134 steps per minute.
On the other hand, a 180 cm tall person would take around 80 minutes to attain the same result, with an average step count of 125 steps per minute.
Moreover, the first person would only walk 5.05 miles, compared to the latter, who would walk 5.35 miles to achieve the same step count due to a broader leg stance when stepping forward. [5] [6]
Walking for 30 minutes daily is sufficient to meet the minimum recommended guidelines as long as certain principles are applied, but in general, more is better.
Although the CDC recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week, that is just the minimum. They explicitly mention that 300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise each week – one hour per day, five days per week – is much preferable.
Walking on a treadmill is good for you, but you must consider the speed and the distance walked, as that can determine the magnitude of its impact on your health.
In fact, the more miles you walk within 30 minutes, the greater the benefits. [7]
On this note, you could use a walking app to make it easier to schedule your walks and keep track of your progress.
Depending on the pace you sustain, walking on a treadmill can be used to warm up, train your cardiovascular system, or reduce body fat. Below, we outline how fast you should walk on a treadmill, depending on your goal.
When warming up, start with a lower pace and increase it slowly across a time frame of 5 to 10 minutes until the target heart rate for your warm-up is achieved.
As each individual has different training levels, the pace required to achieve this varies, although generally, a warm-up walking pace should be between 1.0 and 4.5 mph. [8]
To train your cardiovascular system and strengthen your heart and lungs, you should aim to attain a brisk walking pace of a minimum of 4 mph.
Research has shown that brisk walking for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, is beneficial for lowering cardiovascular risk factors. [9]
As the number of calories burned highly depends on your body weight and the pace you sustain, the faster you walk means, the more calories you burn.
For instance, a 25-year-old who weighs 75 kg and walks at 2 mph for 30 minutes would burn approximately 76 calories, while the same person would burn 163 calories in the same time frame if the pace was increased to 3.5 mph.
This is because the faster the pace, the more mileage walked, and hence, the more calories burned.
Having said that, studies show that the ideal pace for losing weight should range between 3 and 3.5 mph, as faster paces result in lower fat loss rates. [10] [4]
Sometimes, exercising indoors can be more difficult for a number of reasons. Below you can find a few explanations as to why it is harder to walk on a treadmill compared to walking outside.
Some people opt for walking outdoors in nature compared to walking on a treadmill, as the former was shown to have a greater positive impact on mental health. [11]
Related article: Walking Outside vs. on a Treadmill: Differences, Weight Loss & Injury Risk
While walking on a treadmill usually entails exercising indoors and hence being surrounded by other people, furniture, and fitness equipment, some people find it more motivating and pleasant to walk outside as they prefer exercising in nature or open environments.
Walking outside enables individuals to regulate their body temperature better, especially if walking at fast paces, as a breeze will help cool down the whole body.
Treadmills tend to have integrated fans, although they are usually rather small, and their placement only allows air to reach the face.
Some people may suffer from joint problems, particularly knee pain, and walking on a treadmill that doesn’t have good shock absorption can further intensify the discomfort.
Related article: Are Treadmills Bad for Your Knees?
However, walking on an incline or outdoors is usually favored by people who suffer from this problem. In particular, walking on non-asphalted tracks is generally more gentle on the knees due to higher shock absorbance, and it can actually make them stronger by subjecting them to various ground consistencies and gradients. [12] [13]
Walking on a treadmill is good for you as it certainly enables you to get fit and meet the recommended physical activity levels. However, it’s important to use precise metrics to obtain good results and gain health benefits from this activity.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!