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Walking Leads to Longer, More Healthful Life, Study Shows

Posted on: Friday, 13 May 2005, 03:00 CDT

The outdoors provides a thousand things we can do for exercise, but none is as easy as walking.

Walking doesn't require a tremendous amount of agility or skill, yet the benefits are far-reaching.

Walking helps prevent coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, depression and osteoporosis, among other things. It also helps boost metabolism and the immune system, and can help manage weight.

Simply put, walking helps us live longer and be healthier -- and a January 1998 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine offered proof.

The study, "Effects of Walking on Mortality among Nonsmoking Retired Men," followed 707 men, ages 61-81, during a 12-year period. Researchers logged the distance each walked for exercise every day for two years.

Researchers followed up 12 years later, logging the number of deaths and adjusting the mortality rate according to the daily distance walked. The men who walked less than a mile per day died at a rate twice that of the men who walked more than two miles a day.

The researchers concluded that their findings "in older, physically capable men indicate that regular walking is associated with a lower overall mortality rate. Encouraging elderly people to walk may benefit their health."

Walking isn't just for older people, either. I've talked with high school and college students who swear by it.

Now some clarification: The kind of walking I'm talking about isn't a leisurely stroll through the park or around the neighborhood. Walking for exercise is a sweat-inducing, heart- pumping aerobic endeavor. It's the kind of walking where you get home and folks think you've been jogging.

Remember that to change our fitness levels, we need to get our bodies out of their comfort zones. If you stroll a loop around the neighborhood and it takes 30 minutes, those 30 minutes are comfortable. Uncomfortable is doing the same loop in 25 minutes. As the body adjusts, 25 minutes becomes comfortable. Then we try to reduce the time to 23 or 22 minutes, and so on.

These tips can turn a stroll into exercise:

Find good walking shoes. The shoes should fit your feet well. Visit a runners' shoe store to find out the best kind of shoe for your body and gate.

Buy a pedometer and measure those daily steps. If you walk 2,000 steps in 20 minutes today, try to get to 2,500 within four weeks. There are fancy pedometers for $15-$25, but I use a $3.50 pedometer that works great.

Walk uphill. There are plenty of hills in the Springs with manageable grades. The Santa Fe Trail is one example. Follow it from downtown (where it's Monument Valley Trail) north to Palmer Lake, and you've gained more than 1,500 feet over more than 26 miles.

Increase your walking speed.

Add weight by carrying a 1- or 3-pound dumbbell in each hand. Or fill a backpack with a few heavy books. If you're feeling really adventurous, buy a weighted vest and wear it while walking.

Buy a rubber resistance band for your arms and pull it (using a quick motion as if trying to make your shoulder blades touch) while you walk.

Next week: Fitness Challenge 2005

Milo F. Bryant's fitness column appears in Monday's Life section. Bryant has two National Strength and Conditioning Association certifications. He also writes Gazette sports columns. Contact him at mbryant@gazette.com.

Source: Gazette, The; Colorado Springs, Colo.

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