Every weekday morning, like clockwork, Kailash Rajdev or Kalpesh Mehta send a group text to their friends, “Walk 6:40.” The two Kolkata businessmen, now in their early 40s, were so busy with their work in their thirties that they never thought to exercise.
A couple of years ago, with their respective businesses flourishing, they turned their attention to their health and realized that they had put on a lot of weight and needed to do something about it. Although both have flirted with the idea of going to a gym and running, the only thing they do in terms of exercise is the morning walk of 30 to 40 minutes three to five days a week.
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They are not alone in this walking habit. Hundreds of thousands of men and women can be seen walking in parks and boardwalks across the country early in the morning and late at night, when the weather is nicer.
But is walking, by itself, enough exercise to help you lose weight, improve your health, reverse lifestyle diseases like heart disease and diabetes, and get you in shape? Well, to be clear, walking has its benefits, but by itself it won’t help you achieve too many health or fitness goals.
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“Walking is underrated,” says trainer and nutritionist Shannon Beer. “A 30-minute walk goes a long way toward ensuring an active day face to face one sedentary without any activity. Walking is certainly better than no exercise at all.” A study published in the journal Diabetes research and clinical practice in January 2006 found that “an increase in regular physical activity equivalent to 45 minutes of walking 3 days a week may be sufficient to improve systolic and diastolic blood pressure, lipid metabolism, and BMI in patients with type diabetes.” two”. However, the study found that walking had no effect on glucose metabolism.
Public Health England carried out a review in 2018 which found that walking is good for the heart and improves blood circulation. However, it did nothing for the strengthening of muscles and bones, nor did it improve balance, which are crucial for future health and well-being. Strength and balance activities help prevent falls, improve mood and sleep patterns, increase energy levels and reduce the risk of premature death, the review said.
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Celebrity trainer and Kosmic Fitness founder Gagan Arora says that for someone who doesn’t even walk, just standing up is exercise. But is standing exercise enough? Who are we kidding? “In the same way, now that I think about it, walking is a basic movement for our entire life system… It is a shame that we consider walking as an exercise. Things have come to this just because we don’t walk as much as we should all day, every day,” adds Arora.
Walking has huge benefits in and of itself, and everyone should take between 7,000 and 10,000 steps a day, medical and fitness professionals say. But if, like Rajdev and Mehta, you make walking your only exercise, you’ll be stuck at the same point on your fitness path, Arora explains. “There are other parameters that need to be trained and they have more benefits than walking. Both walking and other exercises should have the same weight in your life and one should keep walking in addition to playing sports and doing other forms of training such as strength, flexibility, mobility, agility, etc,” she says.
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Also, there is always a risk that people will get bored of walking as it is a low intensity cardio exercise. For best results and to stay motivated, you should add variety to your exercise regimen and add other workouts. These can be anything you enjoy, such as mobility and strength training, running, biking, swimming, aerobics, Zumba, or kick-boxing. “Adding these workouts would improve your overall well-being, and your gait would also improve from these other workouts,” says Arora.
According to him, the ideal ratio of weekly exercise to walking should be walking 7,000 to 10,000 steps plus strength training twice a week, flexibility three times a week, and moderate cardio a couple of times a week. “Making a plan with a trainer or physical therapist who knows your current fitness levels and medical history is a great idea, as you need to mix and match sensibly,” Arora suggests.
Shrenik Avlani is a writer and editor and co-author of The Shivfit Waya book on functional fitness.
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