Swimming vs. Walking: What’s Best for You
- Choosing the ideal fitness activity for your needs and lifestyle can be difficult
- Is swimming better than walking? Should you be doing both?
- Let Maxine of Hollywood answer your questions and break down the difference here.
Is Swimming Better Than Walking?
It’s the time of year when we’re all thinking more about exercise and getting outside. Depending on where you are in the world, the weather is finally getting nicer, and we’re all looking forward to sunnier days and a chance to move our bodies more.
This begs the question: Which exercise is going to be more beneficial overall? Should you choose swimming vs. walking? Both? Lucky for you, we’ve put together the pros and cons of both swimming and walking so that you don’t have to.
After reading, you’ll be informed enough to decide whether swimming versus walking is best for you and your body. Ready? Let’s jump right in.
The Pros and Cons of Swimming
Do you enjoy feeling lightweight in the water? Whether you choose to swim in the ocean or in a pool, there are plenty of pros and cons to swimming versus walking. You may already know a couple of the benefits, but let’s highlight the important ones so that you can tell if swimming vs. walking is best for you. First, we’ll take a look at the number of calories burned during a swim and the impact swimming has on your joints.
1. Pro: Swimming Burns a Lot of Calories
We’re happy to say that swimming has the potential to burn a significant amount of calories during a single swim session. While both swimming and walking are known to burn calories and are wonderful forms of staying fit, swimming can burn calories more quickly than walking.
If you’re interested in tracking your calorie deficit for optimal weight loss results, it’s important to take this pro into account when choosing which workouts to add to your schedule. Swimming vs walking is better if you want a shorter workout that will give you results.
2. Pro: Swimming Builds Muscle Tone
Is swimming a good exercise for toning up? While walking has a lot to do with leg muscles, a pro to swimming is that it helps build and tone many muscle groups throughout the body. You’ll notice more developing muscle tone because the muscles will look firm while in a resting state, whereas muscles that aren’t as toned are less defined and soft.
If you like the look of the entire body being lean and toned, swimming vs walking is a great way to achieve that. Just like swimming is great for burning quite a lot of calories, it’s also great for burning fat, which will help you reach a toned look. While swimming or walking can improve your legs, swimming is the better choice for a full-body workout.
3. Con: Lack of Bone Density Increase
This isn’t to say that swimming doesn’t provide any increase in bone density, but walking definitely provides more. Swimming is known for being easy on the bones and joints. Because of this, there's a lack of weight-bearing in swimming versus walking, which is key when increasing bone density. If you have specific goals related to bone density, answering the question “is swimming better than walking” can be a bit simpler. Walking is better for maintaining bone density.
While there are other ways for swimmers to work on bone density, we definitely think there are better forms of exercise to work on this specific area of health.
4. Con: Skin & Hair Irritation From Swimming
No matter if you’re swimming in an ocean or a pool, swimming has the potential to cause skin and hair irritation. This could be especially true if most of your swims are in a pool with chlorine. While chlorine is great at keeping a pool clean and safe to swim in, it can have negative effects on hair and skin health.
Take a look at a few possible skin and hair irritations when swimming vs. walking:
- Weakened hair cuticles/hair breakage
- Skin redness
- Itchiness
- Scaling on the skin
You may experience one of these or none of these, but it’s good to know what’s possible so you can prevent it or deal with it properly. You can also mitigate the damage of saltwater and chlorine to your hair with a swim cap. You should definitely consider chlorine-resistant one piece swimsuits to enjoy more durable workout wear.
The Pros and Cons of Walking
Just like swimming, walking has its own pros and cons. If you like taking strolls outdoors and taking some time to enjoy nature, then walking could definitely be best for you. However, as we mentioned earlier, walking requires more effort to burn calories than swimming.
There are more pros and cons to walking that we’ll dive into now. Keep these in mind if you’re trying to decide how to best spend your precious workout time. Don’t take these lightly, and remember you can even have a mix of both exercises for a balance between swimming vs. walking!
1. Pro: Walking Can Strengthen Your Joints
Walking and keeping your body moving without weightlessness is an awesome way to strengthen your joints. It is also easier on them than running or stair climbing. Walking is a great way to strengthen ligaments and tendons in the legs, and it will help keep you at a healthy weight. This will allow there to be less overall pressure on your joints, as well.
Walking is a much better way to strengthen your joints than not moving at all. When you’re not moving, there is more of a risk of developing conditions such as osteoporosis. So, put on your shoes and go for a long, leisurely walk. If your only goal is to get moving a bit, is swimming better than walking? It may not be if you don’t have access to a pool or modest swimwear that ensures your comfort.
2. Pro: Walking Is Great for Healthy, Gradual Weight Loss
Is it weight loss you’re looking for? Losing weight gradually is healthy and easier to maintain. Because it takes a little longer to burn calories while walking, the weight loss won’t be instantaneous. When walking, your body’s oxygen will increase, which is what releases fat cells to be burned as fuel.
As we mentioned, an exercise like swimming vs. walking burns more calories in a shorter amount of time, which in turn means that walking may cause losing weight to take a little longer. This isn’t a bad thing if you’re wanting to implement walking as a lifestyle change and have a healthier routine in general. Swimming or walking can both help you achieve gradual weight loss, but one may work better for your lifestyle.
3. Con: Walking Can Still Put Strain on Joints and Knees
Even though walking is easier on your joints and knees than running or faster-paced exercises, it can still put strain on them if you aren’t careful. When walking, you should be sure you’re careful not to overdo it, and keep in mind that stretching, warming up, and cooling down are all important practices to include in your walking routine.
To prevent strains while walking, do your best to properly stretch and make sure to ease into the walking workout. With these in mind, you should be able to prevent any issues while out and about. However, if you already know that you’re highly sensitive to joint strain, swimming vs. walking may be a better choice due to the supportive nature of water.
If you truly prefer walking, but you want to avoid the strain on your joints, you may want to consider water walking. It’s the perfect blend of swimming vs. walking to ensure you put less pressure on your body while building up strength and losing weight. The extra resistance of walking in the water will get your heart moving and your muscles working!
4. Con: Walking Could Still Be Too Hard on Your Bones
Depending on where you are in your exercise journey, and taking into account any other health issues you may have, walking might still be a little too hard on your bones and bone density. Especially if you’re new to exercising regularly, swimming versus walking might be a safer way to jump in and get moving.
Take it slow at first to gauge whether or not walking is the best option for you, or if you should start with something else.
Be Prepared for Either
No matter which you choose, swimming or walking, we think there are some key things to make sure you have with you to be ultra-prepared. Swimming vs. walking can both take you outdoors, which means you’ll have to be sure to throw sunglasses and sunscreen in your bag.
You should also be sure to shop for appropriate workout clothing, like supportive swimwear or moisture-wicking leggings. Check out some of our top recommendations for swimming here:
- Shirred Girl Leg One Piece Ladies Swimwear
- Tummy Control Swimwear
- Wrap Front Mio One Piece Swim Dress
- Protective Sunglasses
- Sunscreen
- Comfortable Swim Shorts or Swimsuit Bottoms
- Towel
- Goggles
- Swim Cap
- Water
We’re sure you have other essentials in mind for what you’d put in your pool bag or walking pack, but we wanted to make sure you knew our top picks when it comes to swimming or walking.
Tracking Your Workout
If you’re usually a walker, but you want to try swimming vs. walking, you should consider a steps converter to better track your swimming workout. Converting your swim to steps will depend on a combination of the type of stroke you do and how long you swim for. Use a swim to step calculator for estimated results of swimming versus walking.
Get Moving!
So, what do you think? Have we answered your question about whether swimming is better than walking? Have you decided to try swimming or walking first? We enjoy both and are happy to say that there are amazing benefits to both.
Now that you know that the answer to whether swimming is better than walking depends on your specific needs, you can be confident that whichever you choose, you’ll be improving your health either way — and having fun doing so. Once you’ve decided whether it’s swimming vs. walking, shop swimsuits on sale and get that heart rate up!