Born to Walk
Canadian Health / Fall 2006
Fish gotta swim.
Birds gotta fly.
We gotta walk —
here’s how and why
“Consider the human body. Short trunk, long legs for striding, big feet for striking the found, long arms for swinging and pumping. It was made for walking.”
— Dr. Peter Rehor Director of Sport Education Camosun College, Victoria
For Carmen 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 thing walking is not serious exercise, but they should think again. They 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 of 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.
Want to get moving but don’t feel up to the task? Well, even a couch potato can be a solid walker in a month. Canadian Health asked a panel of experts to craft a four-week walking program for you. If you’ve been extremely sedentary or are overweight, check out your walking plan with your doctor first. Ditto for people with chronic illnesses.
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, but 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 you 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.
Sidebar: How to monitor your heart rate
Monitoring your heart rate along with your breathing gives you an idea of how hard you’re working (you should be able to converse while you walk). It can give you the age-adjusted maximum heart rate you can safely work at to gain cardiovascular benefit. Take two fingers (not your thumb) and place them under your jawline on the carotid artery of the neck. Count the number of pulses you feel for six seconds and multiply by 10 to get your pulse per minute. “For the vast majority of people, somewhere between 80 and 100 is a very safe heart rate,” says Lum. Aim for a good walking heart rate by taking 220 minus your age, then working at 60% of that number. So, if you are 40, your maximum heart rate is 180, and 60% of that gives you 108.
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.
Wanna burn?
Say you want to burn off the calories in a sneaked treat. If you’re a 130-pound woman and you walk for an hour at a moderate five-kph pace (as if exercising the dog), you’ll use up 207 calories—more than enough to cancel out three Oreo cookies or a packet of Vachon Brownies. The energy a walker expends is a function of weight, speed intensity (use of arms, poles, weighted vests), fitness level and distance travelled.
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-minutes 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 towards it.
Sidebar: Pump it up
Supplementing your program with upper-body strength training will help avoid osteoporosis in the neck and shoulders. Try lifting light weights at a home or at a gym—but not while walking, as that can lead to injury. Do bicep curls and front raises. “You can also add in leg squats or lunges or walking up and down stairs to supplement a solid outdoor program,” Wilson says.
Safety Tips
Invest in good walking shoes with adequate food cushioning, a solid heel counter and a flexible sole: these are all that protect your body from the impact of striking the ground.
Don’t always walk the same route, or time of day, particularly if you’re female.
Choose your walking route carefully. Do you need a companion after dark?
Be aware of what’s going on around you. Don’t wear headphones; you can’t hear traffic or someone approaching from behind
In hot, humid weather, go early in the morning or later in the evening. Bring along water and some light snacks. On hot days, wear a sun hat and light layers of clothing that can be removed to prevent overheating.
When hiking further afield, carry a cell phone for emergencies and tell someone where you are going.
Never walk with ankle weights or hand-held weights; these can cause injury to the hip, shoulder and upper neck. A weighted vest is an ideal alternative for increasing caloric burn while keeping the hands free.
If you start to lose your motivation, join a neighbourhood walking program. For bad weather conditions, mall walking is becoming very popular, especially with older walkers.
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.
KAREN RICHARDSON
