The Art Of Walking

Walking doesn't have the same cache as running. But it's just as good – in fact, I think it can be better, for at least some people. This blog, and my philosophy, is all about making the choices that are best for you, and not others. But here's some food for thought on why you might want to give walking, the poor cousin of the exercise world, more of a chance.

Personally, walking has given me moments of sanity. When I was in physiotherapy for an extended period of time, one of the things I had to do was stop all exercise besides walking (and of course the physio exercises). Because you are treating a muscle imbalance, if you go out and do lots of high-impact exercise, you will automatically use the muscles which are overly strong and they will never atrophy. Instead, you have to build up the weak muscles using very specific exercises while allowing the ones that are too strong to get weaker.

But walking I could do. Granted, it was frustrating that it was all I was allowed to do, but going for a walk is good on many levels. It's good exercise, for one, and when you walk you are doing something slowly and deliberately enough to work on your posture. I am currently hunting around for a good book on walking and posture to review on the blog, so stay tuned.

Many people say that walking is a way that they gather their thoughts or work on problems in their life. Naturalist John Muir said that "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." I'm not sure if he meant blog topics, but I usually have a new idea for a post after the 10-minute walk home from the station each evening.

And walking with a friend is a great way to have a good talk. I read about a therapist who did sessions with clients while walking together because the clients were much more willing to delve beneath the surface of their lives while in motion. Once I spent a great afternoon walking and talking with a friend while we meandered all over Regent's Park. Much more enjoyable than just sitting in some coffee shop – and the scenery kept changing.

I used to listen to music while I walked, but these days I like to open my eyes and really "see" everything around me. There are so many times we're on autopilot. But of course there's no right way, and sometimes when you want your walk to be really good sweaty exercise there's nothing better than some fast-paced music.

People think they walk a lot, but when pedometers were all the rage, I heard about people strapping them on and realizing they actually took a lot less steps than they thought they did. Doing a 30-minute walk every day can be enough to get the health benefits of exercise (it's a much longer walk than you think, my friends).

And walking is something you can keep doing as you get older since it is so kind to your body. Before we took my Grandmother to Israel she trained for the extra walking by taking a 30-minute walk each day. When we did a 3-hour tour of Jerusalem I think I was more tired than she was at the end of it (she's 93, by the way).

Pretty much everyone can do it, it works as a solitary activity and in groups, and it sounds appealing in all seasons. There's the warm sunny afternoon walk through the summer countryside. But there's also the after-Christmas dinner walk in the icy cold night-time air, peeping into all the houses lit up inside and out. Walking is the open arms of exercise.

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So You Want To Be A Runner…

As I sat on the table across from my physiotherapist she asked only a simple question. "Why is it that you want to run?"

Well, runners are long and lean and disciplined. They do marvellous things like get themselves out of bed on Saturday and Sunday mornings to run 10Ks. Runners get to buy special food like power bars and sports drinks to "keep up their strength". It's romantic to be just you and your trainers on the long road with the horizon stretching out in front of you. Like a sort of Nike advert. And you can write books about it like Haruki Murakami. I mean, I want people to listen to What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (his book, by the way).

But I didn't say any of this to my physio. I think I mustered an explanation that had something to do with "I'm bored of walking so much." Which isn't a bad reason, but not sure that it's a great reason.

I kind of knew what she was going to say after five years of talking to her about my body and what it's capable of. In case you don't know me (although that's unlikely as this is my first blog posting ever), it's been about five years since I ran into real trouble with my body. I am a former financial journalist who spent about four years battling painful muscle spasms caused by poor posture (some might call it a musculoskeletal disorder or repetitive strain injury (RSI)). It was the hunching over my desk typing that did it, but a big part of it was also my body type – hypermobile – scientific speak for being flexible.

As I write this blog, I'll tell you the whole story. How I figured out what was wrong with me, and how I eventually fixed it, with the help of a physiotherapist, who by any standard is just super. So I'll probably refer to her going forward as Super Physio.

But it's a long story, so we'll let it unravel slowly. All you need to know now is that I'm getting to the end of the journey of chronic pain and now have a new body to manage.

Anyway, back to the running. Super Physio reminded me gently about my body type and how I'm more prone to injury than most – particularly in those high impact sports like running. But if running was really something I wanted to do badly, she'd help me get there. But why did I want to do it? Did I enjoy it? Was it something that might cause me to get injured more often and mean physio more often – and was I OK with that?

That is the very essence of what I want this blog to address. We often do things for reasons other than what's best for us or what will actually make us happy. We follow the latest fitness craze because others are doing it. We eat more blueberries because someone told us they are the next super food (even though we don't like them). We take bottles of vitamins because we feel crappy but we don't even think about how we're not getting enough sleep and running ourselves ragged. We do lots of crazy things under the premise of "health," but are we any better off? And do the experts know more about our own bodies than we do? We are the ones who live in them every day.

Resolving the running issue was a quick thought process for me. I didn't really want to run because it was something I liked doing. It just seemed cool when other people did it. So maybe best to leave it to them. There are loads of other fitness activities I'd rather partake in. And more physio, more often again? No thanks. I think Super Physio is great, but I'd really rather be out living my life.

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