Medium walk and power walk

[Cristina.T]

Hi there! I've started a guided program for run training and the first day starts with walking which is perfectly fine. The only problem I'm having is not knowing exactly what is the pace for medium walk and power walk so that I could do it more efficiently. 

[Heybales]

Efficiently?

Normal walking does have a most efficient pace for average person.

https://exrx.net/Aerobic/WalkCalExp

About 3.5 mph.

Medium walk? With most able to hit close to 4 mph as max walk speed - medium would be 2 mph if this is like a gauge low, med, high.

Power walking uses totally different gait than normal walking to get past this max speed issue, and using more energy so not really an efficient speed I'd say at that point - whatever you can get the joints/muscles to do.

[Cristina.T]

Thank you, Heybales!

The first day training was structured in walking for  2 or 3 minutes, medium walking, then power walking progressively, and reverse, but without stating how fast the medium walk or the power walk should actually be. Hence my question. If I were to subjectively choose my own medium or power walk speed, it would have probably been too slow and I really needed something more precise if I was going to reap any benefits from it. 

[emili]

I think you can also gauge it by how you are breathing and feeling during the walk. If you are not seeing any increase in your heart rate or breathing, you may want to pick up the pace. Everyone starts out in different fitness levels which is why they may leave it up to the individual to determine speed.