If there were a perfect exercise, it would be loaded with cardiovascular benefits, require little equipment and be accessible to virtually everyone.
It’s a simple one to find: walking.
“It’s an exercise that can be utilized by people of all ages and both sexes,” said Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper, the Dallas physician whose 1968 book “Aerobics” put into print for perhaps the first time the true health benefits of aerobic exercise.
Aside from a pair of good walking shoes, a jacket for cold weather and maybe a tape player for music or an audio book, there’s no cost at all.
But can walking–just putting one foot in front of the other–really be worthwhile exercise?
You bet. You have to do it regularly, and there are more benefits the faster and farther you go. But even a modest amount of walking can improve your health and burn calories.
“Walking can be shown to be of considerable benefits, whether your goals are health and longevity or just improving quality of life,” Cooper said.
It’s no coincidence that government figures say 55 percent of Americans are overweight. A recent survey found that 53 percent of Americans want to lose at least 20 pounds, and studies show 49 million Americans are totally sedentary.
The numbers are all related: Too many calories consumed and not enough of them expended make for hefty waistlines.
“But I’m too busy to exercise” is an excuse health educators and nutritionists say they hear daily.
It’s true we are an overworked and busy society, but we find time to watch at least one 30-minute TV show several times a week. If you skipped that program and exercised instead, you could change your life. (Of course, if you have a treadmill, you can do both.)
“I recommend people do some kind of cardiovascular work, which can be walking at least 30 minutes three times a week,” said Catherine Kruppa, nutritionist and registered dietitian for the health club at the Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa in Houston. “Recent studies have shown you can split that up and do 15 minutes twice a day, and it would still be beneficial.”
One of the great advantages of walking over most other exercise is that it does not require youth or a high level of conditioning to do comfortably.
“I’ll be 71 on March 4,” said Cooper, the guru of the jogging revolution in the 1960s. “I’ve been jogging since I was 29. About 42 years, 33,000 miles. But at this stage, I am doing as much walking as jogging.”
Cooper, who operates the Cooper Wellness Institute and maintains a Web site at www.cooperwellness.com, recommends all sorts of exercise but believes people should listen to their bodies.
“If you start having impact-related problems [such as painful knees] cut back [from jogging or running] to walking. We’ve found if you walk fast enough, you get the same benefit you do from running, with one-tenth the injury problems,” he said.
After charting the cardiovascular conditioning of thousands of people, Cooper is specific about the benefits of walking.
“If you can walk at a 12-minute-a-mile pace–that’s very fast, it’s aerobic walking–that’s the same energy expenditure, the same heart rate response as running a mile in nine minutes.
“What we shoot for is a 15-minute mile walking. That’s 120 steps a minute, that’s four miles an hour, double time in the military.
“If you can do that for 30 minutes, three times a week, our studies indicate you can reduce [the risk of] death from heart attacks, cancer, strokes and diabetes by some 58 percent. That translates to about a six-year increase in longevity.
“If you can’t walk that fast, slow down but walk more frequently. If you walk two miles in 35 minutes, you have to do it four times a week for the same benefit. Or you walk two miles in 40 minutes five times a week. That’s a 3-mile-per-hour pace–a standard military pace–90 steps a minute. You won’t get the aerobic benefits that you do from a faster pace, but you can get health and longevity benefits.”
If the idea of a workout puts you off, simply look at it as part of your lifestyle.
“When you incorporate physical activity into your daily lifestyle it is easier,” Reeves said. “You don’t see it as exercise. Instead of always using the phone [at work to talk to a co-worker], just get up and walk down the hall. If you take the Park & Ride, get off a block early and walk.
“The recommendation is 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day. And you can break it up into three 10-minute segments.”
Or as Cooper said, “You should walk your dog, whether you have one or not.”
