Walking for exercise?
As chiropractors we get asked about exercise a lot. People are looking for the most 'bang for their buck' so to speak to get the highest impact for their life for the smallest investment in time and energy.
The reality is, there is no magic bullet for every one. Each of us have different strengths, needs and capabilities.
What IS clear, is that our bodies are better with exercise. It makes us healthier, feel better and improves our quality of life.
Usually when asked “what sort of exercise should I be doing?”, at Align we will answer with: “what do you like to do?”. The improvements to your health from exercise are dosage dependent, i.e. the more you do, the better the outcome, so to us, the best place to start is by assessing, what is it that you enjoy doing the most?
If you’re anything like most people (ourselves included) if you don’t LIKE the exercise you’re trying to do, you’ll find nearly any excuse to not go and do it, so just pick ANY physical activity you enjoy and get out to do it.
The other mistake clients tend to make is thinking that simple exercises aren’t “enough” to bother working at. The classic example being walking. People often think that because its so slow and relatively low intensity, not to mention, free and available any time you feel like exercising, that it won’t give them enough return on their investment of time and energy and therefore they don’t make time to do it.
Personally, I believe that you should NEVER underestimate the power of walking. This recent article by the ABC discusses walking as exercise and I think covers the topic quite well. Granted, its not the most efficient way to build muscle, flexibility or cardio, if you walk consistently you will find improvements in all of these areas, as well as significant improvements in cardiovascular health, decreased risk of diabetes and can improve stress levels as well.
In my life I have found walking to be a ‘gateway’ exercise, the more of it I have done, the more I feel like its what I want to do, even going as far as inspiring me to try other more intense exercise, literally proving to me that I had to walk before I could run.
Kieran