GOOD HEALTH MAGAZINE : Fitness : WALK, DON’T RUN! : IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, A BOOM IN WALKING IS IN FULL SWING. BEHIND IT IS A ‘LESS-IS-OK’ PHILOSOPHY OF EXERCISE, BACKED BY RESEARCH THAT SAYS YOU DON’T NEED TO RUN A MARATHON TO BE HEALTHY.
As Sushila Johal strode around the track at John Burroughs High School in Burbank late one recent afternoon, several runners passed her by. But Johal showed no compulsion to catch up. Wearing a pair of sturdy walking shoes and a stereo headset, she seemed completely comfortable with her pace. Three times a week, she heads for the track, walking three miles a session. “I used to be a runner,” says Johal, 38, “but I began to think it was just too hard on my body.”
It wasn’t pain or injuries that compelled Johal to switch from a high-impact to a low-impact exercise routine but simply her desire to avoid such hazards. She had read reports linking high-impact exercise with higher injury rates. So earlier this year, Johal began walking for exercise and now doesn’t miss running at all. She’s convinced that walking provides enough exercise to keep her in tiptop form for winter skiing and summer hiking.
Johal has a lot of company. About 20 million Americans, age 25 and older, walk for exercise at least twice a week, according to a 1989 survey conducted by the National Sporting Goods Assn. By contrast, 4.2 million engage in aerobic workouts such as aerobic dance, 3.9 million cycle and 3.3 million Americans run at least twice a week, says Tom Doyle, an association spokesman.
Last year alone, fitness walking drew 6.3 million new participants, says Mary Gregory, marketing manager of The Walking Magazine, a Boston-based publication that debuted four years ago and now claims a readership of 2.4 million. “The average age of fitness walkers is 43, and 65% are female,” Gregory says. Fitness walking is defined by many exercise experts as walking at least three times a week for at least half an hour at a brisk pace, says Brad Ketchum Jr., the magazine’s editor. A brisk pace is defined as walking at a 12- to 15-minute-mile speed or about 4-5 miles per hour. Swinging the arms a bit as you walk is a good idea, because it increases your heart rate and burns more calories. In race walking, an even speedier form of fitness walking, exercisers help propel themselves by exaggerated hip and arm swings.
In Southern California, the boom in walking seems to be in full swing. Walkers are changing buying patterns at sporting goods stores. “Pedometer sales are up,” reports Todd Hulce, assistant manager at Big 5 Sporting Goods in Burbank. “So are the sales of wrist weights, and I think many are bought by walkers.”
The walking boom is changing the look of 5K and 10K runs as well. Many now include walking events, sometimes called strides, due to participant demand. The 1990 Venice Fathers Day 5K and 10K race, for instance, included a 3K Family Stride. “This year, it drew 400 walkers,” says Marjorie Alatorre, executive director of the Venice Chamber of Commerce, the event’s sponsor. “We feel there is a vast number of people who walk every day for exercise. Why not include them in these events?”
Some fitness walkers, such as Johal, are former runners or other athletes who want to minimize the chance of injury. But some are former couch potatoes who view intense exercise as overwhelming. Whatever the motivations, the message is becoming clear: Walking isn’t wimpy anymore.
Behind the walking boom is a “less is OK” philosophy of exercise, backed by research that says you don’t need to run the City of Los Angeles Marathon (nor the New York or Boston “gruel-a-thons”) to be healthy. A spate of recent studies suggests that walking is exercise enough for people to keep healthy and fit and that marathons can be left to those who want to be super-fit.
Distinguishing between health benefits and fitness benefits is a concept new even to exercise experts, says John Duncan, a physiologist at the Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas. A major health benefit of exercise is improved cardiovascular functioning, while a fitness benefit is improved endurance. Recent studies suggest that people who exercise even at low intensity can achieve health benefits, along with some degree of fitness, defined by exercise experts as the ability of the body to transport and use oxygen. To become super-fit, though, exercisers must increase their workout intensity, and thus they improve their endurance and athletic performance. But experts say most people are more interested in the health benefits of exercise than the fitness benefits. If so, they can jog at a 10-minute-mile pace or walk an equal distance, says Dr. Neil Gordon, director of exercise physiology at the Institute for Aerobics Research. “You get the same health benefits. What counts (for improving your health) is the energy expended, not how intensely you exercise.”
A check of medical literature turns up numerous studies attesting to the health benefits of walking. Here’s a sampling of the researchers’ latest findings:
Walking can de-stress you after a hard day on the job or with the kids. One study found that 40 minutes of fitness walking reduced anxiety and tension and enhanced overall mood for at least two hours afterward. Kim Edens, 31, of Venice, who has walked for exercise since she was a teen-ager and now puts in 15-25 miles a week, either walking or running, agrees: “Walking tranquilizes me. It alleviates stress while it helps me remain thin.” Ron Lesiak, 43, a Burbank aerospace worker, has walked five times a week for the last six years. Relaxation is his primary motivation: “I’m just less tense.”
Walking might be safer for exercisers with mild high blood pressure. “We are just completing a study that suggests walking is a better form of exercise than other activities for patients with mild hypertension,” says Dr. Jeffrey Tanji , a family-practice physician and director of the sports medicine clinic at UC Davis Medical Center. “It doesn’t seem to raise the blood pressure as much (during the activity) as some other exercises, like running or basketball.”
Whether regular walking can help lower blood pressure over the long term isn’t known, says Dr. William Manger, a professor of medicine at New York University and a spokesman for the National Hypertension Assn. “There is evidence that strenuous running can help lower blood pressure (in the long run) but I’m not aware of any scientific studies indicating that walking can lower blood pressure.” But overweight people sometimes drop pounds as they begin a walking program, Manger notes, and weight reduction can help lower blood pressure.
Walking can improve the results of your next physical. In a recent round-up article in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., Dr. James M. Rippe, a well-known proponent of walking, noted several benefits of the activity, including weight loss and total-cholesterol reduction (along with an increase in “good cholesterol”). Overweight participants in the Rockport Walking Program, which he developed, lost an average of 17 pounds after four months on the program, which combines walking and a nutritious diet. (Some also lowered their blood pressure.) Walking might also slow age-related bone-mass loss (which can lead to fractures) and help maintain aerobic capacity, which can decline with age.
Walkers see another vital benefit to the exercise. It can be self-paced. “You don’t have to be in shape to start,” says Edens, who works as a director of a weight-loss center and finds that 90% of her clients choose walking as exercise. “You feel better immediately, but you don’t feel overwhelmed. Walking exercises the whole body and I’m convinced it is slenderizing. It becomes sheer addiction.”
Not bad, say walking proponents, for something that costs the price of a good pair of shoes, can be done almost anywhere and has a low risk of injury.
Now that few exercise physiologists argue against the value of walking, most have moved on to debate the finer points--mainly, how much is enough to maintain and improve health?
Not surprisingly, they disagree. But not by much.
People should walk at least 30 minutes, four times a week, says Tom Anderson, an exercise physiologist who directs health testing at Centinela Hospital Fitness Institute. “If you shoot for four days of exercise, you will probably get in three.”
Tanji of UC Davis suggests another plan: walk 20 or 30 minutes every other day.
Gordon’s exercise prescription is a bit trickier but more individualized. Walk enough in a week, he tells people, to expend at least 14 calories per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight. A 150-pound man, for instance, should expend about 1,000 calories a week--by walking a total of 10 miles during several sessions, at a moderate pace. “Once you hit 20 calories per kilogram, you derive no additional health benefits,” Gordon says. The more you exercise, however, the fitter you usually become.
That’s not to say walkers won’t notice a difference in the appearance of their bodies. Some say they feel that they are working most of their muscles. Some say they notice that their calf muscles seem more toned.
Another plus, according to Anderson: “Walking gives us the health benefits (of other activities) without the injuries. Many more injuries are associated with running than with walking.”
Gordon agrees: “Without a doubt, the risk of injuries is far less (when you walk) than when you run.” Among the most frequent runner’s injuries, Anderson says, are shin splints (an inflammation of the lower leg muscles), chondromalacia of the knee (abnormal softness of the cartilage) and soreness from overexertion.
The most common walking injuries, sports medicine experts find, are inflammation of the Achilles tendon (Achilles tendinitis) and inflammation of the heel area (plantar fasciitis).
Women can avoid Achilles tendinitis, says Scott Rosenthal, a podiatrist at Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital, by not wearing high-heeled shoes immediately before walking and by stretching the Achilles tendon. (Do a “wall push-up,” Rosenthal says. Stand facing a wall; keep one leg in back of the other, three feet from the wall, as you lean into the wall with your hands. Bend both legs. Keep the back heel flat. You will feel a stretch in the Achilles tendon of the foot in back.) Stretching before a walk can help avoid plantar fasciitis. “Weight loss can help, too,” Rosenthal says. “That injury occurs more often in the overweight.”
The No. 1 cause of injuries from walking is “too much, too soon,” Anderson says. A slow start is recommended for the uninitiated. “If someone is totally sedentary,” Anderson says, “we suggest walking 15 or 20 minutes a session for the first two weeks. Use the talk test--if you can’t talk comfortably at the end of the walk, you are probably pushing too hard.”
For those new to walking, either walking or running shoes will fill the bill, Rosenthal says. “But if you are walking 45 minutes at a time, it’s probably best to get special walking shoes. They have more of a cushion in the heel to accommodate the stride motion than do running shoes.”
Walking enthusiasts say the boom has only begun. They emphasize that the real bottom line to popularity is compliance. It’s much easier, especially in sprawled-out Southern California, to lace up your walking shoes and start out around the block than to line up a tennis date with a cross-town partner or fight traffic driving to a health club.
Says Tanji of UC Davis: “Walking is easier to do than other exercises. It is easier to incorporate into a daily routine. One of my colleagues pointed out that if he ran at noon every day, he would have to change his clothes and take a shower, which would add another 15 to 20 minutes to his schedule. By walking, he is able to stay in street clothes, come back and carry on his business.”
RE: LEARNING TO WALK
Learning--or relearning--to walk correctly is the key to injury prevention and enhanced enjoyment of walking for health, says Corey Dzitzer, a Santa Monica kinesiologist who teaches people how to walk in three-hour workshops. “People tend to lock their torso, pelvis or head when they walk,” says Dzitzer. All are don’ts in her book. “Good posture and relaxation are important when walking for exercise,” she says. “Allow the torso to swing with the arms. Military-style walking is not correct. Exercise walking should be free flowing. Land lightly on the heel. Roll from the heel to the toe.” Before walking, Dzitzer says, do leg and spine stretches; she warns people to cool down after a walk with some stretches then as well.
Here are other ways to increase the safety and enjoyment of walking, according to the National Safety Council:
--Walk against traffic to reduce chances of accidents.
--Take advantage of designated walking paths.
--Wear special reflective clothing if you walk at dusk or after dark.