Dr Anna Rolleston The Cardiac Clinic

When you go walking – do you walk briskly, do you walk and talk, or do you stroll?

Walking is a fantastic activity that gets us out and about in our environment. Walking can be the ideal exercise for some people because it is free, there is a stress relief aspect that goes along with it and it can be very social. When I meet people in my clinic who say they walk regularly I always ask them: Do you walk briskly? Do you walk with a friend or a group? The answers to these questions often tell me a lot about whether a person is getting a good amount of benefit from their walking regime.

Walking is what we do. As humans we get around by walking. We probably do less walking than our ancestors, but it is still our most easy mode of transporting ourselves. So if walking is ‘what we do' it is not that much of a stress on our systems. By this I mean, if we do it every day, it is not as physiologically taxing as something like cycling which is not something everybody does every day.

For your daily exercise to cause positive health benefits, it must be a stress on your body. For a very over-weight person who has not done any exercise for a long time, walking will certainly be a stress on their body. However, if you are reasonably active, in apparently good health and walk on a regular basis, and have done for years, I question whether your walking is giving you additional health gains. I certainly agree that your walking will be likely maintaining your health and fitness but in terms of physiological adaptation to cause improvements in health parameters, your walking is perhaps not causing advancement.

Before you go and throw out your walking shoes, read the tips below to boost your walking and optimise your health.

Walk Briskly

Intensity counts. Brisk walking is just that – brisk! If you can hold a solid conversation as you walk then you may not be walking at a high enough intensity. Walk at a pace as if you were late for an appointment.

Practice interval training

After a good warm-up, add periods of higher intensity into your walk. We often call this the ‘walk-a-lamppost-run-a-lamppost' theory. You walk as fast as you can (or jog) the distance between 2 posts then revert back to brisk walking between the next 2 posts. Repeat this for 6 or 8 posts for a good burst of intensity in your walk.

Consider using walking poles

These are great because they reduce the impact on your joints and also give your upper body muscles something to do. This means that you will use more energy than if you did not use the poles.

Take one step then take ten thousand

Consider buying a pedometer and recording the number of steps you take each day. Try to increase the number of steps you do each day. Inactive people take up to 4000 steps per day, moderately active people take up to 7000 steps per day and very active people take about 10000 steps per day. Make yourself a step goal and work up to it.