Walking Single Best Thing You Can Do for Your Health
Dr. Mike Evans of the University of Toronto argues that getting 30 minutes of exercise a day is the single best thing you can do with your health. The impact on all manner of potential health problems is staggering.
I walk a lot. Some thoughts:
– funny when the dog-walkers look at me like “where’s your dog?”
– not sure it’s enough to make up for my “screen time.”
– while sedentary to walking is a good transition, even better to add some hills. Don’t worry though, your body will just want that at some point.
– a bicycle can be as good or better, but it depends on your roads/trails
– my hiking friends kept recommending Born to Run, and I finally read it recently. It is actually very inspiring.
– if your body wants to run a bit, let it
– if you get a “use” injury, be sure to give adequate time off. I’m in recovery now, after tweaking my ankle a bit.
(As regards “Born to Run,” there is a good argument that running is what we’re made for. It might be my Achilles’ tendon that is sore right now, but do you know that we are the only primate with an Achilles’ tendon? Why? To run. We also have some strange tendons holding our heads in place that the other primates don’t have. So that our heads are steady when we run.)
Oh, Meetup has hiking clubs in a lot of areas. The beginners groups are fun, social, and good exercise. And being in a group makes the women feel safe. Heh, maybe the meetup is an ad-hoc tribe 😉
I ended up doing Mt. Whitney with people I met at a meetup.
Great — I’m about to have ankle-fusion surgery. My doctor says he thinks I can still use the elliptical machine at my gym. God, I hope so… I’m also hoping I walk on the golf course again. I’ve been carting it for the last year. Miss the walking.
@sam:
Bummer Sam, hope that works out for you.
Thanks, JP.
I gave up addiction to automobile in 1996. I think I’ve saved well over $100,000 since in unpaid car payments, insurance and such. Walking is built into the Plan. Luckily, there is almost always sun in LA.
@James in LA:
More of us would be able to kick our addiction to the automobile if America wasn’t quite so automobile-friendly and pedestrian-hostile. After moving from Denver (one of the more walkable major cities) to the Sun Belt (where The Car reigns supreme) I’m impressed that you are able to conduct life in L.A. without a car. Walking in most Southern states is a risky proposition: few sidewalks, many huge and scary intersections, almost no designated walking paths and so on. And, of course, public transportation systems utilized solely by drunks and people talking to themselves in loud voices.
There’s plenty of sun around here, just no pleasant way to get from Point A to Point B underneath it.