Walking for Health
Benefits of Walking
Extensive research on walking's benefits has been conducted over the past 25 years. According to one researcher, if walking was a pill we would all be demanding our doctors to prescribe it to us. Here is a partial list of the benefits of walking.
Reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure.
Strengthens leg and core muscles and increases bone density leading to stability and fewer falls.
Lubricates and strengthens joints and reduces arthritis pain.
Helps reduce and/or maintain weight.
Lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes and several types of cancer.
Reduces stress and promotes more positive moods.
Improves memory and greatly lowers the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
Improves sleep quantity and quality.
Lowers overall risk of dying compared to control groups who don’t walk.
How Far Should You Walk
The research is very clear that walking is extremely beneficial to overall health as we age. The problem is determining how much walking is enough to get the positive benefits. Researchers seem to be in agreement that any increase over your normal step count leads to at least some positive benefits. For instance, a study in JAMA Neurology found that there was a direct correlation between walking about 10,000 steps a day and a 50% decrease in the risk of dementia over a seven year period of time. However, they also found that walking as little as 4,000 steps a day led to a 25% decrease in dementia over that same time period. So your decision about how many steps to aim for might be determined by how concerned you are about getting dementia in the future.
Other studies have shown that you can decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease by 40-50% by increasing your number of daily steps from 2,000 to 7,000. Additional steps continue to decrease the risk but at a much lower percentage. Most research tends to focus on encouraging between 8,000 – 12,000 steps a day for the highest increase in health benefits.
How Fast Should You Walk
Finally, there is some indication that the health benefits of walking can be increased by walking at a moderate or brisk pace. Unfortunately, not all researchers indicate what they mean by those words. The consensus seems to be that to get the best results you should walk at a pace of between 3 – 4 mph. In other words, you should be able to walk a mile in 15-20 minutes.
What Walking Doesn’t Do
While walking is extremely beneficial, it is not a magic bullet. If you eat too much sugar and junk food, you can still gain weight even though you are walking. Maintaining or losing weight requires both a healthy diet and regular walking. Even though you are walking you can still have a heart attack or get dementia. Walking helps lower the risk of getting these diseases, but it is not a guarantee. Walking lowers mortality risk but does not prevent aging or death. Walking contributes to an increased likelihood of maintaining a healthy and fulfilling life over an extended period of time. This is known as healthy life expectancy.
What I’m Doing
I began increasing my step count about 3 years before I retired. However, I was not aiming at a certain number of steps. I simply tried to walk more and would occasionally go on a walk with my wife during the day. After I retired, I decided to make physical fitness one of my goals in retirement. Walking has become one of the most important activities I’m using to increase my physical fitness and increase my healthy life expectancy. Each day I dedicate between 2-3 hours to physical fitness activities. I walk about 90 minutes a day; ride a stationary bike 35-45 minutes a day; lift dumb bells, resistance train, or do calisthenics 15-30 minutes a day; and finally do one other physical activity like dance, play pickleball, or mow the lawn 30-60 minutes a day.
My Recommendations
If you're new to exercise, here are my recommendations.
1. Download a pedometer to your smart phone. For a week log your number of steps you take each day without changing your daily routine. Find the average number of steps you took that week.
2. Start slowly to increase your step count. If you are getting 4,000 steps a day in your regular routine, see if you can increase that to 5,000 steps by taking a 10-minute walk at lunchtime.
3. Look for ways to increase your step count by taking an after dinner walk with the family, using the steps instead of an elevator, parking in the last parking spot in a row instead of one close to the store, or finding a partner to walk with you at a certain time of the day.
4. Once you add an activity to increase your steps to your daily routine, stay consistent with it. It takes between 2-3 months to form a new habit. If you stay consistent for that length of time, the new activity will become part of your daily routine.
5. Aim to average 10,000 steps a day. There will be days that you travel, are sick, or have other responsibilities that you won’t be able to get to your 10,000-step goal. Just do your best to meet your goal the next day.
6. After reaching your 10,000-step goal for two or three months, add another activity to your regime like lifting dumb bells or playing pickleball two or three times a week.
The secret to success is making small incremental changes and then implementing those changes consistently. Remember you are a steward of the body that God gave you. You should do your best to take good care of it. “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies” (I Corinthians 6:19-20, NIV).