Born to Walk

Fish gotta swim.

Birds gotta fly. 

We gotta walk—

here’s how and why

Karen Richardson

“Consider the human body. Short trunk, long legs for striding, big feet for striking the ground, long arms for swinging and pumping.  It was made for walking.”— Dr. Peter Rehor, Director of Sport Education, Camosun College, Victoria

For Carman Sararas, 68, walking changed and perhaps saved his life. Two years ago, the Kingston, Ont., resident underwent quadruple bypass surgery; since then, he’s been walking four days a week, up to 10 kilometres a day, under the direction of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Centre at Hotel Dieu Hospital. “I’ve lost 28 pounds of excess weight and my muscles are toned as they haven’t been since middle age,” he says.

But for Carman, walking is not only about cardiac health, it’s also about mental well-being. “If I miss a day of walking or exercising, I just don’t feel right. Since I started walking, my attitude is more outgoing and positive than ever before. It’s like having my mental batteries recharged with loads of adrenalin.”

In this day of high-tech gyms and extreme sports, there are some who think walking is not serious exercise, but they should think again. The physical measures of health—lower blood pressure, blood cholesterol and blood sugar, flexibility of muscles and joints, upper- and lower-body strength, percentage of body fat, a positive mental outlook—these are all parameters that can improve in a good program of walking, says Rodney Wilson, a professional fitness consultant at Kingston’s Queen’s University.

For those at risk for osteoporosis—or for anyone who wants stronger bones—walking trumps cycling and swimming because, as a weight-bearing activity, it increases the “load” on the skeleton, thereby strengthening the bones and helping to reverse the skeletal thinning of osteoporosis. “It works on the bone structure of the lower body, including the hips, lower back, pelvis, knees and ankles, which are common sites of osteoporosis,”  Wilson says.

Walking three to five hours a week also halves the risk of dying of breast cancer, says a recent study of breast cancer survivors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Exercise, including walking, can drive down  blood glucose levels and increase the muscles’ ability to use insulin to store energy, notes Dr. Grant Lum, a sports medicine physician in Toronto. Thus, it may lower your risk of glucose intolerance and type 2 diabetes.

Brisk walking can even boost your mood by causing the release of feel-good chemicals in the brain called endorphins. In fact, some mental health professionals now conduct walking therapy sessions, since these appear to improve a patient’s mood and facilitate dialogue between patient and therapist.

And exercise—walking included—appears to improve brain function. “The reports are pretty solid that exercise reduces the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease and that better health through exercise leads to better cognitive function,” notes Dr. Jack Diamond, scientific director of the Alzheimer Society of Canada in Toronto.

Week 1

Someone who has been doing almost no physical activity should start out easy: walk three times a week for 10 to 15 minutes each session. Remember that you need to loosen up your body. Do a few minutes of warm-up stretching before and after each walk.

If you’re a sedentary soul, start with a few walks around the block and see how you feel. “If you’re really exhausted and can’t do anything for the rest of the day, cut back,” says Dr. Brenda Brouwer, a researcher in rehabilitation science at Queen’s. “You should also be monitoring to see if you feel dizzy or unstable, particularly when you stop.” And keep an eye on how long it takes for your heart rate to return to baseline after you stop walking and cool down. “It should drop to baseline within a couple of minutes,” Brouwer says. “If not, cut back. You may be overdoing it.”

If you’re already somewhat active, aim to walk four days a week at a steady pace. The benefit of exercise is cumulative, so you can add to your walking minutes by taking the stairs instead of the elevator for a couple of floors and hopping off the bus a few stops before your destination.

Ideally, you want to reach four to five days in the first week because you want to reach an hour or slightly more of cumulative time in week one. “Throughout any given week in your program, try to increase your pace as the week goes on, so you’re covering more distance in the same amount of time,” says Brouwer.

During your first week, you may have some sore leg muscles, but the discomfort shouldn’t last longer than 48 hours. “Often people will get tightness in the front of their shins, and that’s from the muscle called the tibialis anterior,” says Wilson. People will often think they have shin splints, but it’s a matter of conditioning. As the muscle gets fitter and stronger, it will accommodate the walking.” To loosen up the muscle and promote circulation, Wilson suggests rubbing your thumb up and down the length of the shin after the walk.

Stride, don’t stroll

Take long, firm strides and swing your arms. To ensure a steady walking gait, be sure to bend at the hip to get your foot out in front. Extend your hip at the end of the step. Pay attention to your walking posture: keep trunk motion to a minimum and your head facing forward.

Week 2

During week two, increase your walk time to 20 minutes per day and add an extra day. Try for five days if you can. Keep the intensity at the level of brisk, purposeful striding. “I like to describe it as walking as if you are late for a bus,” says Dr. Bob Ross, a Queen’s exercise physiologist. You’re not running—you can still carry on a conversation—but you know you’re moving. And that type of activity has a tremendous health benefit.”

Week 3

By week three, you should have no problem tolerating longer walks of 30 minutes on three out of five outings. You can do these in one session or break them into two 15-minute sessions. “Whether it comes in one big chunk or several smaller chunks, walking seems to offer the same cardiovascular benefits,” says Dr. Howard Sesso, an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Try increasing each walk by five minutes and walk five or six days a week. Use small speed bursts to work up to a faster pace. Every five minutes, power walk for 30 seconds in short strides, with speed-enhancing bent arms rather than speed-slowing dangling arms.

By this stage, your energy and sleep should be notably improving. You might feel more toned in the legs and behind, and perhaps a bit lighter or trimmer around the waist. “The important thing is to stick to your plan and stay motivated, so that it becomes more of a routine than a labour,” says Wilson. The third week is the danger point, where people who are going to fall off begin to waiver. “They might give themselves an excuse not to make that third walk.” If you start to flag, keep your eyes fixed on an object about 20 metres ahead and pretend you’re being dragged toward it.

Week 4

Walk for 30 to 45 minutes six days in this week and take a longer hike on the weekend. By now, you should easily be able to sustain a session of 40 minutes and move at higher speeds because of better cardiovascular fitness. 

By the end of the fourth week, you may even have dropped a pound or two through walking alone—maybe more if you’ve combined walking with changes in diet.

But beware. “If you get to week four and you don’t start to build upon it, then you’re heading onto a plateau physically where you stay at a certain level of fitness and don’t improve,” says Wilson. 

Boredom may start to undermine your program, so now’s a good time to buy a pedometer to track the number of steps you take and keep the number rising. Try for 10,000 steps a day. “Keep that challenge going,” says Wilson. “If you were breathing hard and sweating in week 1, make sure you still do that in week four.” Get the arms moving and aim for a power-walk motion or try more difficult trails. Softer surfaces such as grass or dirt use more energy and reduce impact strain on the knees. Walking in soft sand can boost your calorie burn by up to 50%.

Down the road

Looking ahead beyond week four, you can make the transition from a straight walking program to a walk-run. “Walk for six weeks to get your body conditioned, then if you’re out for, say, 30 minutes, walk for four minutes, then run for one minute and build upon that,” says Wilson. Walk with a companion or in a group to make it a social occasion. Consider using Nordic trekking poles to work the upper body, take the strain off the lower legs and burn up to 20% more calories. But make sure your poles are the right length: they should be about 70% of your overall height. Anything shorter will make you lean forward and put stress on your lower back.

As with many of life’s pursuits, the key thing with walking is to keep your program interesting, yourself challenged and your progress continuing.