Walking is a man’s
best medicine. - Hippocrates
If you are thinking about starting exercise, I recommend walking. In fact, I want
to promote walking as part of your daily
life, not just for exercise or weight loss.
Our life now involves too much sitting, which is a completely unnatural activity for the
human body. I’ve seen in almost
everybody back, shoulder, neck pain as well as other symptoms caused by sitting
too long because our body structure is designed to be upright standing and
moving around. New research in the Annals of Internal Medicine shows that prolonged
sitting threatens our health and life even with a regular physical activity. It says that sedentary or physical inactivity
for a large portion of the day will increase the risk of cancers (by
13%-16%), death from cardiovascular disease (by 18%), type 2 diabetes (by 90%) and
shorten our life expectancy.
Walking is an easy (no skills required), perfect activity you can do anytime anywhere to cut back sitting time. Besides, there is a very low risk of injuries (1%-5%). Let’s start slowly, especially if you have been a couch potato. You can walk any way you like. Start with walking one block or 5 minutes out and back. Try to find some time in the morning, during the lunch break, before or after dinner, with your music, spouse, kids or dogs. Come up with your own way of making it part of your daily routine. If you can do it everyday for a week, you can try farther and longer. Studies by Harvard Medical School suggests that walking lowered the risk of heart attack and cardiac death by 31-32% in both men and women.
One last thing.
You will need a good pair of
walking shoes especially if you have flat feet (over-pronated) or high
arches. You don’t want to cause
unnecessary pain or an injury wearing wrong shoes. I recommend you go to a local running/athletic shoe store (NOT
chain or big brand name sports stores) where an experienced salesperson will
check your feet, arches, and the way you walk to pick the right walking shoes
for you.