There’s a better way to walk for exercise
It isn’t just moving forward on autopilot — you also need to think about your eyes, shoulders and core.
We all need to move more. Sedentary behaviour presents a health risk. One of the simplest and least expensive ways to get more active is just putting one foot in front of the other. Walking at a brisk pace for at least 150 minutes a week can help you sleep better, improve your memory, reduce the risk of serious conditions like heart disease and diabetes, boost bone health and curb weight gain, according to research from the American Heart Association. What’s less clear: the right way to pack in those 150 minutes.
It’s time to revisit how to walk. Yes, you mastered it back in your toddler days. But when you’re walking for exercise, proper form is essential. When you put thought into the mechanics of your gait, your footwear and your routine can make a difference in your fitness.
The first step
Doctors recommend paying attention to all body parts needed for walking, even ones you might not think of.
“Start with your feet together and stand up straight, relax your shoulders, keep your pelvis neutral, and engage your core, because those muscles help you maintain that proper posture when walking,” says Dr Seth Cheatham, head team physician and chief medical officer for athletics at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Swing your arms freely back and forth like a pendulum from your shoulders, instead of the elbows. Keep your footsteps light, rolling from heel to toe to avoid a hard, flat-footed landing, says Dr John Hinson, an orthopaedic surgeon at Palm Beach Orthopaedic Institute in Florida.
“Avoid overstriding — reaching your leg out too far in front of you — which causes more impact on your joints and can lead to injury.”
“I lost weight, lowered my anxiety, and greatly improved my overall wellbeing,” Brown says. “It was a lot of work, but so worth it.”
A surprisingly important aspect of walking is knowing where to rest your eyes. The default for most is looking down, Dr Cheatham says. We can blame our smartphones for that. This can generate excess tension in your neck and upper body. You’re also creating a safety hazard not looking where you’re going, especially when outside.
“Keep your chin parallel to the ground and focus your eyes 10 to 20 feet in front of you,” Dr Cheatham says.
To relieve that upper-body tension, he also recommends occasionally shrugging and relaxing your shoulders during the walk. There’s an easy, effective way to measure your pace to see what qualifies as brisk or a moderate tempo: Use your words.
“The talk test involves assessing how out of breath you feel while you’re performing a particular activity,” says Dr Marie Kanagie-McAleese, a pediatric physician at University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Centre.
“If you’re able to carry on a conversation while walking — you could even start singing — that’s considered mild intensity.”
Start walking faster, and talking isn’t as easy. If you start getting a little winded, this means you’re in the moderate-intensity zone. Once you’re unable to say more than a few words without pausing for a breath, you’re getting vigorous exercise. Briskness will naturally vary, depending on your level of fitness. The average walker’s moderate pace is typically 100 steps a minute, or between 3.5 and 4 miles an hour.
“A less-conditioned person may walk at a slightly lower rate to achieve this pace,” Dr Hinson says.
What about footwear?
Most people just throw on comfortable shoes for a walk. Tommy O’Gorman, store manager at Fleet Feet in West Hartford, Connecticut, suggests considering a few other factors. “Your active footwear should be the biggest pair of shoes that you own,” he says.
“Feet sweat and expand, especially if you’re on them for a long time.”
This often means sizing up. Some brands historically fit on the snug side, like Nike and Mizuno, says Mr O’Gorman. In general, you want a thumbnail’s space between your big toe and the end of the toe box.
“Shoes should feel like a hug, not a squeeze. Be careful with lacing up,” he says. A good test is to lift your foot with the laced shoe on, then point and flex your toes. You don’t want any tension on those tendons on top of the feet, which can lead to bruising. The fact that walking is low impact and requires no pricey special equipment makes it an ideal weight-bearing workout. Body-weight exercises are important because as you age, you naturally lose bone density at an average rate of 1 per cent a year after age 40, says Kanagie-McAleese.
The fact that walking is highly customisable ups its appeal. You can do it indoors on a treadmill or through your neighbourhood, 10 minutes three times a day or 30 minutes straight, adding a weighted vest to increase intensity.
For avid walkers like Karma Brown, 52, an Oakville, Ontario-based author, it’s the effect this exercise has on her mental health that keeps her trekking along. “In my late 40s, I began experiencing perimenopause symptoms and more frequent injuries,” says Ms Brown, a former CrossFit devotee.
“I was anxious, had heart palpitations, hot flashes, and loads of joint pain.”
She soon started tagging along on a friend’s walks with their dogs and noticed an immediate decrease in anxiety. This prompted her to quit high-intensity workouts and focus on reducing stress. It took a year of leaning heavily on breathwork, experimenting with cold therapy, developing good sleep hygiene, and daily brisk walks — now averaging 30 miles a week — but the changes were striking.
“I lost weight, lowered my anxiety, and greatly improved my overall wellbeing,” Ms Brown says. “It was a lot of work, but so worth it.”
The Wall Street Journal
