The New Walking
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday January 10, 2004
Finally a fitness fad that takes a step in the right direction, writes Meredith Wilkie.
It looks like nanna had it right, after all. The daily constitutional she swore by has been rediscovered. Doctors now say a brisk walk could be as good for us, if not better, than running. And since we perfected this particular activity roughly 2 million years ago - about the era of Homo erectus - it's easy to see why this particular fitness fad has so many devotees.
There are websites devoted to walking (www.walking.org or www.walkingconnection.com), with tips, chat rooms, articles and inspiration. Those uncertain about the skill they first learned as a toddler can buy books and manuals such as Fitness Walking for Dummies and The Spirited Walker: Fitness Walking for Clarity, Balance and Spiritual Connection. In Britain and the US, thousands of women have taken up "mall walking", striding en masse around shopping malls, creating a velodrome circuit for pedestrians.
In New Zealand you'll find Walking New Zealand magazine, with articles on everything from leisure and competitive walking to nutrition, testimonials, and fashion (sensible shoes only).
It's just as big in Australia.
The NSW Department of Sport and Recreation promotes a program of walking clubs around the state. There are about 85 Walking for Pleasure clubs and groups in NSW, with about
12,700 participants.The new walking comes with a new toy, the pedometer. Sales of these number crunchers have risen dramatically in Australia in the past year. Rebel Sport estimates that sales doubled last year. Even McDonald's has given away free pedometers to customers in Houston, after Men's Fitness magazine named the city the United States's fattest three years in a row. And more than 800,000 Canadians will soon find pedometers in their breakfast cereal, courtesy of a new Government initiative called Canada on the Move. Last year, Australia's federal Health Department spent $40,000 on pedometers for its staff.
In Japan, pedometers are nicknamed manpo-kei, meaning "10,000 steps meter". According to the experts, walking 10,000 steps a day (about eight kilometres) will keep you fit and svelte. The average American takes between 3000 and 5000 steps a day, and the average Australian is slowing down. By 1999, we were walking for only 114 minutes every week, 25 minutes less than we walked in 1997.
The new walking isn't as simple as putting one foot in front of the other. Staggering to and from the couch to the car just isn't going to cut it. Like any exercise, you have to push yourself to build fitness and muscle which will in turn reduce your risk of diabetes, heart attack and cancer.
In her decade of walking, Jan Stockdale, 53, has noticed how the numbers of walkers have increased. "Definitely," she says of her treks. "Much more so. Now I see the tennis girls walking and it's, 'hello, hello, hello.' " The former teacher regularly walks with a group of friends. "I walk to maintain fitness, but it's more complex than that," she says. "A couple of us meet every Friday and we take our dogs, and we just catch up fairly intensely the entire time about what's been happening. It's like a continuing serial, actually."
Some of the women in Stockdale's walking group wear pedometers. "We'll say, 'how far have we walked? Oh, we've only walked nine K - seems longer than that' or 'look at this girls, we've walked 15 K already!' "
Many people don't walk properly, says personal trainer Steve Littlewood. "It can be anything from the shoes they're wearing, their fitness or the pace they're walking at, to an incorrect stride," he says. "Some people think that walking for fitness means you have to throw your hips into it."
Overstriding (taking longer than normal steps), poor push-off (a slow, flat-footed walk), unbalanced gait (often caused by a longer leg, usually the right leg) and poor posture (head straining too far forward; shoulders behind hips) are the most common walking problems. And if you do have a problem with your gait, Littlewood says walking with dumbbells will only make it worse.
The good news is, all you have to manage is about 30 minutes a day, three to five times a week. If you don't have 30 minutes? Three
10-minute walks a day are just as good. And if you really want to blast fat, make like Nancy Sinatra by breaking a sweat for about 45 minutes, five to six times a week.
For more information on Walking for Pleasure clubs, phone the Department of Sport and Recreation on 131 302.
Five tips for
better walking
1 Walk smoothly. Put energy into each step and let your arms swing freely by your side. Make sure your heel lands first, and then push off beneath and behind you, keeping your front knee relaxed. If you bend your arms at 90 degrees, they can swing faster as you speed up.
2 Wear comfortable clothing and appropriate footwear: walking shoes, cross-trainers or running shoes are fine.
3 If your breathing becomes uncomfortable, slow down or stop. You don't need to push yourself too hard. Aim to raise your pulse, but you should still be able to carry on a conversation without gasping.
4 Walk with head held high, eyes forward, squeezing your buttocks together and clenching your abdominal muscles for a full body workout.
5 The most critical time to keep yourself motivated is in the first two to four weeks. Take the dog, a friend or family member with you on slack days to encourage you to keep at it. A decent pedometer costs between $40 and $60, and will help you keep track of how many steps you've taken. Aim for 10,000 a day. And remember, shaking the pedometer to click over the numbers doesn't count.
© 2004 Sydney Morning Herald