Personal Health : Walking Is Best Step Toward Better Fitness
Maybe Hippocrates, not Reader’s Digest, had it right after all. Long before personal trainers or cardio-funk aerobics, the ancient Greek physician promoted walking, not laughter, as the best medicine.
Once snubbed as the workout for beginners, senior citizens and injured athletes, walking is gaining new respect and a second look even from high-impact fans. Many 5K and 10K runs now include walking divisions. Even the Los Angeles Marathon welcomes walkers--but encourages them to keep a brisk 12.5-minute mile pace so the streets can be reopened on schedule.
It’s about time walking lost its “wimp” image, contends Casey Meyers, author of “Walking: A Complete Guide to the Complete Exercise.” In his eyes, walking is “the perfect lifetime exercise,” provided a person is in good health and has a doctor’s blessing.
Walking yields multiple health benefits and carries little risk of injury, a spate of new studies concludes, even in people who have long been sedentary. Now, researchers are fine-tuning the exercise prescription for walking, paying close attention to an exerciser’s goals.
The Numbers
About 32 million Americans are “fitness walkers,” says Valerie Traynor of Walking Magazine. “The average age of fitness walkers is 41,” she says, and women outnumber men 65% to 35%.
Since 1987, walking has increased about 35%, Traynor says.
Body Benefits
Walking can improve health in a number of ways, says Ann Ward, a visiting associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the author of walking books.
“Certainly you will see benefits in terms of weight control,” she says. In fact, most experts concur that the difference between people who maintain weight loss and those who don’t is exercise.
Walking, because it is a weight-bearing exercise, can also help delay or prevent osteoporosis, the loss of bone density that accompanies aging and increases fracture risk.
Walking can help control moderately high blood pressure, too, says Dr. Jeffrey Tanji, a family practice physician and director of the sports medicine clinic at UC Davis Medical Center, although two major studies have recently suggested otherwise.
In those studies, Tanji says, the participants exercised too intensely. He and others believe the best exercise to help control high blood pressure should be done at moderate intensity, like walking.
How Much? How Long?
The duration and intensity of an ideal walking routine depend on your fitness level, your goals--and which expert you ask.
Exercising three to five times a week, 20 to 60 minutes per session not including warm-up and cool-down, is recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine.
Ward recommends that walkers burn off 1,500 to 2,000 calories a week to reap health benefits, more for the best fitness benefits.
“Walking one mile burns 75 to 100 calories (depending on body weight and other factors),” says Ward. So a 1,500-2,000-calorie burn-off would require walking up to 20 miles a week.
Others recommend burning off only about 1,000 calories a week, which can often be accomplished by walking 10 miles.
Whether a walk speed is classified as brisk or snail’s pace depends on a person’s fitness level, age and other factors, Ward says. “Generally speaking, walking at a speed of over four miles in an hour is brisk, walking three to four miles in an hour is moderate and walking less than three miles in an hour is stroll pace.”
“The biggest misconception about walking is that you have to walk lots longer to burn more calories (than for running or other activities),” says Meyers. “But things happen if you just walk a little faster.” Forget stroll pace, Meyers tell potential fitness walkers. “That just doesn’t elicit a training response.” But if you speed up a bit and walk about three miles in 45 minutes, you can achieve a moderate level of fitness, Meyers finds.
“Walking is as good as running,” says Meyers, who logs 30 miles a week walking at various paces. “The faster you walk, the more benefits you get and the less exercise time needed.”
But even at low intensity, walkers can boost levels of good cholesterol, according to a widely quoted study conducted by The Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research and published in 1991 in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Researchers evaluated 102 women, ages 20-40, who were previously sedentary but began walking five days a week at three different intensities. The aerobic walkers covered about five miles in an hour, brisk walkers about four and strollers less than three.
Not surprisingly, the faster walkers improved cardio-respiratory fitness more than the strollers, but the strollers improved their good cholesterol as much as did the fast walkers.
Fringe Benefits
Some walkers reap more than physical benefits, such as those who walk with Austin (Ozzie) Gontang, a San Diego family therapist who combines therapy sessions with walking. Gontang walks and talks with clients once a week and they agree to walk two or three other times on their own. About 50 therapists nationwide employ the approach, Gontang estimates.
“Anxiety and blocked thoughts give way as the adrenaline is metabolized through exercise,” Gontang says. The therapy-as-you-walk sessions can be particularly helpful, he finds, for clients who are depressed and feel like they can’t go on--either with responsibilities or with life. Once they see their physical strides, some see their psychological difficulties in a new light.
Gearing Up
For several years, manufacturers have offered walking shoes. Even newer are run/walk shoes and “performance” shoes for fast walkers.
A good pair of shoes and well-fitting socks are really all that’s needed, but some walkers also swear by ankle weights and hand weights. Ward discourages the use of both, but especially ankle weights. “They change your biomechanics and set you up for injury.”
The Pitfalls
Exercisers new to fitness walking often make the same mistakes, Meyers says. Poor posture is No. 1. “Most people, particularly slower walkers walk with their head down, like they are going to find a winning lottery ticket,” says Meyers who suggests: keep shoulders back, hips forward and chin up so it’s parallel to the ground. Good posture makes it much easier to increase exercise intensity.
Mistake No. 2: not swinging the arms enough. A good full arm swing will enhance the workout, Meyers says. To make it easier, walkers who carry personal stereos should clip them to the waist. (Faster walkers at a 12-minute mile or greater pace have to bend arms at the elbow, he says, to keep the body in sync.)
Mistake No. 3: Self-delusion. “Most people think they are walking faster than they are,” Meyers says. “Push yourself. Then everything starts to come together.”
Suggested Reading
* “Walking: A Complete Guide to the Complete Exercise,” Casey Meyers, Random House, 1992.
* “The Complete Book of Fitness Walking,” James M. Rippe and Ann Ward, Prentice-Hall, 1989.
* “The Rockport Program,” James M. Rippe and Ann Ward, Prentice-Hall, 1989.
Pleasing Places for a Workout Walk
We drive the Santa Monica, the San Bernardino, San Diego and the Golden State freeways. But once we’ve exited and our nerves are in need of replenishing, where do Angelenos love to walk? Here, a few of your favorite places.
“Averill Park in San Pedro (Dodson Avenue and Park Drive). It’s a beautiful, serene park with rolling hills, a rose garden, a waterfall and a pond full of crawdads.”
--Sherry Ford, San Pedro “The national cemetery (950 Sepulveda Blvd., Westwood) . . . It is close to my job for before-work or lunch-hour walking. The roads are all paved, most are flat, and few other people are visible. . . .
--Christine Swanson, Santa Monica “The new Lake Balboa in Encino (near Burbank and Balboa boulevards) . . . When we only had the dirt path around Encino Golf course, all we had to look forward to were the occasional model plane flyers to break the monotony. Now we have a small oasis in the middle of the San Fernando Valley with model boaters, kite flyers, canoers, fishermen, picnicking families, bike riders and the rest of us walkers and joggers . . . I prefer the late morning hours because traffic on Balboa Boulevard is light and the sun on the lake is reflected with maximum of sparkle and minimum of glare.”
--Susanna Modjallal, Encino “(At) the Strand in Manhattan Beach-Hermosa Beach, the walking is like stepping into a different watercolor painting from day to day. The scenery unbelievable.”
--Mary Pat Dorr, Manhattan Beach “Furman Park in Downey (Rives Avenue and 8th Street) . . . There are beautiful trees and it is peaceful and quiet. Also, being an ex-tennis player, the path and grass are good for the knees, which can wear out after too much wear and tear on the tennis court.”
--Sandy Petzoldt, Downey “Frequently when I go downtown, I do the stairs on Hope Street. It’s an excellent walk from the Music Center (at 1st Street), although the construction of the new Disney Hall requires a bit of rerouting. The greenery and flowing water make this a tranquil island in the center of a busy city. Some of us are urban folk who don’t really find it necessary to head for the country just to enjoy a short nature walk.”
--Susann M. Monroe, Glendale
