Walking

I was up at the Cambridge track tonight training a high school athlete.  As two people walked past us, getting some exercise, my client asked me if that was “really any good for you”.  These people were walking kind of slowly. 

Well, like most things, it’s all relative.  Is a walking program good for you?  Sure, I recommend it to patients all the time.  Could you be doing something better?  Maybe.  What it comes down to is something called a window of adaptation.  Take an olympic level weight lifter – if he or she improves a lift by a quarter pound, this is a huge deal.  This is an individual who is near the top when it comes to performance – their body, technique, strength, and neural conditioning are so finely honed that even a tiny improvement is quite a feat.  This person has an extremely small window of adaptation. 

On the other hand, take you or me – we have huge windows of adaptation.  Pretty much anything we do beyond the ordinary is going to provide some benefit.  In this way, if a deconditioned person begins a walking program, they are going to see improvement -  the trick is to maximize the potential for improvement.  I mean, after all, walking to most of us is a common, everyday activity, as are using stairs, chasing kids, etc.  What we need to do is find an activity that actually taxes the system a bit – the more stress (within reason), the greater benefit. 

So, if you  are a person who has taken up something like walking for better health, I applaud you, and keep it up.  But put some thought into maybe stepping things up a bit – do some research or speak to a professional.  Oh yeah – and always, always, always consult your doctor before beginning or modifying an exercise program.