Is Walking Cardio? Heart Rate Test Results
I tested Leslie Sansone's Walk at Home workout wearing a Polar chest-strap heart rate monitor. Then I compared the numbers to a HupSix workout. Here's what happened.
The Numbers
- Leslie Sansone Walk at Home: 11 minutes 45 seconds of cardio in 30 minutes
- HupSix: 40 to 50+ cardio minutes in 30 minutes
The walking workout never got out of the moderate zone. Moderate counts as single digits toward your cardio credit. HupSix gets into zones 3, 4, and 5, which count double. That is how the gap happens.
Who This Workout Is Actually For
Leslie Sansone's workout is not designed for people who are already fit. It is for people who are just getting off the couch and starting to move. For that it is genuinely useful and the fact that it is free and online is a good thing.
If you are already active and looking for real cardiovascular training, this is not it. At 107 beats per minute my heart rate never got close to the zones where adaptation happens.
What Cardio Is Actually Supposed to Do
The point of cardio is not just burning calories or losing weight. The real goal is heart adaptation. Getting your heart to work at a more efficient level over time. My max heart rate used to be 159. Since doing HupSix consistently it is now 176. A max heart rate of 176 is roughly the cardiovascular profile of a 44 year old. I am 61. That is what consistent vigorous cardio does to your heart.
The Coordination Problem Nobody Talks About
This one surprised me. Walking workouts should be easy to follow. But Leslie moves through the choreography so fast, introducing moves while you are already moving, that it is genuinely hard to keep up. Not physically hard. Coordination hard. I looked back at the footage and I looked silly. It is walking. That should not happen.
With HupSix the learn-practice-execute format means you always understand the move before you are asked to do it full out. That makes a real difference in how capable and coordinated you feel during the workout.
The Music
The Walk at Home music is generic dance tracks. It never stops, never changes, and there is no real connection between the music and the movement. It just runs in the background.
That matters more than people realize. Moving in sync with music you are connected to has been shown to reduce perceived effort by up to 15 percent. Background music does not do that.
Does Rest Hurt Your Cardio Output?
One thing worth knowing about interval-style workouts: the rest periods do not hurt your cardio credit. With HupSix you rest between rounds and then go full out again. That stop and go structure does not reduce your cardiovascular output. It actually helps you push harder when it counts, which is how you accumulate more time in the higher zones.
Is Walking Cardio?
Walking is healthy. Walking every day is better than not walking. But according to the Polar data, 30 minutes of this workout produced less than 12 cardio minutes. To reach the 150 minutes of weekly cardio recommended by the American Heart Association you would need to do this workout more than 12 times. Walking is movement. It is not cardio training.
