I doubt I need to convince you that walking can benefit your health. Thanks to research in the last decade, most people understand the benefits of walking. Researchers have done substantial amounts of work on the topic of walking for fitness (not just performance or biomechanics). And as the buzz grew louder, what walkers have known all along was borne out scientifically: Regular walking will improve and maintain fitness and health.
Walking affects the five components of fitness.
- Body composition. Walking four times a week, 45 minutes each time, the average person can lose 18 pounds in a year with no change in diet, according to an early study at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Key message: Walking can help you trim fat as well as tone your muscles.
- Cardiovascular fitness. Walking, at any level or speed, two or three times a week for at least 20 minutes increases cardiovascular strength. Key message: By increasing the strength of your heart and lungs, you increase your ability not only to exercise longer and harder but also to perform everyday tasks without tiring.
- Flexibility. As with any endurance activity, walking doesn’t significantly increase your flexibility. Every activity uses certain muscle groups more than others. Therefore, if you don’t stretch the muscles that walking uses extensively, they’ll tighten, stay tight, and perhaps cause pains or strains. Key message: Flexibility exercises are still vital for remaining free of injury. Look for walking- specific flexibility exercises in chapter 5.
- Muscular endurance. All walkers develop a moderate amount of endurance, which enables them to exercise longer before becoming exhausted. Race walkers have high endurance—comparable to that of marathon runners. Key message: Walking helps build your ability to do something longer without fatigue.
- Muscular strength. You will gain muscular strength with walking but probably not enough for well-rounded fitness. Muscles that get an extra workout in walking include the entire back of the leg: calves, hamstrings, and gluteals (the buttocks). You’ll also use muscles in the back and shoulders when you swing your arms. If you walk over hills, you may also develop more hip and thigh strength, and if you cross-train with other walking-oriented methods discussed in chapter 5, you may also develop additional back, chest, and arm strength. Key message: Walking strengthens targeted muscles, but doing specific exercises for other muscles will develop more balanced strength.
Walking provides other physical benefits and prevents dangers associated with other types of exercise. Walking is a low-impact exercise, which puts less strain on bones and tissues. Walkers land with one to one and a half times their body weight per foot strike, compared with three to four times for running. This creates less chance for injuries due to repetitive pounding.
Research indicates that walking helps bones stay strong and dense by forcing your body to bear its own weight. Although osteoporosis, a condition where bones become brittle, is a problem most common in older people, bone density can only be built and maintained when a person is young. Thin bones can lead to hip and spine fractures. A quarter of all women will ultimately fracture a hip, after which the average six-month survival rate is worse than after a heart attack. Men aren’t immune to thin bones, either; they just get them later in life than women do.
Exercise will help build your immune system, too. In one study by Dr. David Nieman at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, a group of women who walked 45 minutes a day were half as likely to catch colds or flu than an inactive group. This immunity-boosting response applies to everyone, not just women.
Walking improves your spatial awareness and ability to balance because you balance on one foot with each step. The ability to avoid losing your balance, tripping, twisting an ankle, or falling requires control and training your proprioception—the ability of smaller muscles, such as those in your lower legs and ankles, to send accurate messages to nerves and other muscles to keep you upright. Although balance is something we take for granted, it takes training and practice, just like everything else.
From casual exercisers to Olympic athletes, walking offers everyone a challenge. Walking can be a slow stroll as you gain fitness, a dawdling saunter to spend time with the kids or to recover from injury, a daily fitness activity for life, or a high-level and challenging sport. Or it may be all of these for you, according to your mood or your energy level on a given day.
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