by Jeff Siegel
It's easy, inexpensive, amazingly good for you, and has few undesirable side
effects. Yet it's almost completely overlooked when people consider which form
of exercise is best for them. It is walking, and the evidence continues to mount
that three brisk walks a week -- not running, weight lifting, or going to the
gym -- may be the most health-conscious thing you can do for your body.
The results surprised even JoAnn Manson, and she's supposed to know all about
the subject.
\"No, I didn't realize just how effective walking was,\" says Dr. Manson, the
co-director of women's health at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and an
associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. \"We always knew that
walking was effective, but after looking at the results, I'm surprised that
walking isn't readily adopted by more people.\"
The results came from a study presented by Dr. Manson and her colleagues at a
recent meeting of the American Heart Association. The study, part of an
eight-year research project featuring 84,000 female nurses ages 40-65, reported
that women who walked for at least three hours a week had a 40 percent lower
risk of heart attack and stroke than women who didn't walk. The study also
suggested that the brisker the walk, the greater the health benefit.
\"The benefits of walking are just not well appreciated,\" says Dr. Manson. \"There
is still a misperception among the public that in order to achieve any health
benefit, you have to exercise vigorously or be a marathon runner. And that's
just not true.\"
Walking, as the results from the ongoing Nurses Health Study demonstrated, offers a variety of benefits with very few risks:
- It's inexpensive,requiring little equipment other a pair of sturdy shoes.
There are no fees to pay, no courses to drive to, and as easy to do as
strolling around the block.
- It's probably the safest form of exercise. Walkers stand little chance of
developing shin splints, tennis elbow, or torn muscles, cartilage, or
ligaments. "About the only way you can hurt yourself is by tripping on the
sidewalk," says Robert Vaughn, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist at the Tom
Landry Sports Medicine and Research Center at Baylor University Medical Center
in Dallas. In one study, 70-year-olds suffered twice as many injuries from
running as they did from walking.
- Walking is one of the most efficient, low-impact workouts available.
Walking and running, says Dr. Vaughn, both burn approximately 100 calories an
hour. Because people can run two miles in the time it takes to walk one mile,
they think running is twice as effective. But if they had walked two miles,
they would have burned the same amount of calories as if they had run two
miles.
- Walking offers a host of long-term benefits, which were outlined in the
Nurses study. Among the findings: women who walked briskly (three to four
miles an hour, or a mile every 15-20 minutes) had a 54 percent lower risk of
heart attacks and strokes. Walking also lowers blood pressure, improves the
cholesterol profile, lowers the risk of osteoporosis, and may lower the risk
of certain kinds of cancer. There is also evidence that walking helps reduce
stress. "I really feel it on the days when the weather is too bad and I can't
walk," says Joan Bondioli of Dallas, who walks her dog 40 minutes a day. "I
just don't feel as good. I feel like there's something missing."
Getting started
Although walking is safe and dependable, don't start any sort of exercise
regimen without first consulting your health care practitioner. Once you've
received a clean bill of health, keep these points in mind.
First, if you are what the experts like to call "chronically sedentary," don't
try walking 10 miles the first time you get off the couch. "See what you're
capable of," says Dr. Vaughn. "If you walk five minutes around your yard, and
then don't feel like doing any more, then don't do any more. But the next time
you walk, try to go a little longer. Eventually, you'll be up to that 10 miles."
Keep in mind, especially if you're just starting to walk, that you have to come
back from where you have walked. Make sure you can cover the entire distance
comfortably, and not just the first part of it.
Second, walk briskly. The Nurses study defined "briskly" as the aforementioned
three to four miles per hour. Says Dr. Manson: "If there's one thing to keep in
mind about walking, that's it. If you walk two miles per hour or less, your
health benefits aren't going to be as great, especially if you already engage in
moderate exercise."
Still, that brisk pace is not daunting as it seems. It works out to a mile every
15 to 20 minutes, which many people can cover when they're walking their dog.
And people who are new to exercising don't have to hit that speed immediately to
benefit from walking. The Nurses study pointed out that people with a slower
pace had a 32 percent risk reduction over people who didn't walk when it came to
heart disease.
Third, find a friend to walk with. It not only makes the time go faster, but the
companionship makes it easier to go walking on the days when the last thing you
feel like doing is walking.
What it won\t do
Walking, despite its strengths, is not a panacea for the ills of the modern
world. It won't give you a body-building physique, although it does strengthen
the big leg muscles, including the quadriceps and the gluteus muscles. It's not
a terrific way to lose weight (nothing beats a proper diet), but neither is
running. Dr. Vaughn points out that a marathon runner only burns 1/4 pound of
fat during a 26-mile race, which seems like a lot of suffering for such an
insignificant result. And just so runners won't have hurt feelings, keep in mind
that the 1/4 pound of fat burned does not include the pounds a runner loses in
fluids. This, however, rarely comes from the spare tire around the waist.
Don't expect walking to leave you cut and buffed. If you want that, you'll have
to lift weights. Do expect walking to make you feel better, both physically and
mentally.
Dr. Manson hopes the results of this study help more people realize what walking
has to offer, and that they won't overlook it because it is neither fashionable
or trendy. "We should have realized this all of the time," she says. "When you
look at walking does, and you look at the basic research, all the evidence is
there. You can see the evidence of the biomechanics at work. We just never
really looked at it before."
Now that they have, there is no reason not to take advantage of the results. Get
up off the couch, lace up your walkers, and GO!