To think that just walking for exercise isn’t enough to keep fit?

[Notjustanymum]

Just that, really! I’m somewhere North of 45 years old, and started walking last year before the pandemic hit. I walk twice a day (with dog) for about an hour each time.
While I’ve noticed that I pick my feet up better when walking now, I still struggle with uphill and stairs and have lots of trouble with foot and shoulder pain. I didn’t go to the gym before (or not for over 10 years, anyway).
What do you do to keep fit/keep aches and pains away? Should I be doing something else?

I'm walking on average 8 miles per day now I'm working from home, I've been losing weight steadily (eating healthily too) and have also toned up quite a lot in that time.

Walking on an incline (hills/mountains/fancy treadmill) is fab as is running (start gentle, I took up running in the first lockdown and never got on with it before). Mostly the issue with walking is how much of it you need to do to see results if you're on mostly-flat ground. Good fun though.

Also you can go walking with wrist/ankle weights to get more impact from your walk.

Hi OP, I'm 47. I walk for exercise, but do walking at home now (look up Leslie Sansone on YouTube if you're interested) as it needs to be above a certain pace for your heart rate and to build stamina. Some of the walks include "boosted walking" which is basically a jog but boosts your heart rate in the same way that HIIT training does. Others incorporate a little bit of resistance training for strength. But it's all fun and none of it hurts! I'm basically the kind of person who exercises to keep weight down, stave off death and improve my mood and I do the minimum to achieve those things. I have a dog too, but don't count those walks as proper exercise because he's lovely but lazy and so his walks are too "stop and sniff" to be enough exercise on their own.

I used to do a bit of yoga, but now I do 15 mins of a stretching routine every day which has yoga and pilates bits in it. . Having tried masses of them, I found this one which is great. I don't get aches and pains any more.

I've got my weight down from 11.5 stone to 9 by doing the above and making small changes to my diet and portion sizes. It has to be small changes with me or I won't stick at things. So it took 2 years! But got there eventually. I know your post isn't weight-related but just in case anyone reading is considering walking for weight loss - it can be really brilliant for that too.

I lost a lot of weight just from walking, 4/5 stones iirc. It was a lot though, 2 hours a day at least. But I was walking to and from work, so it was easy. I lost the weight nice and steady.

If you don't pick your feet up well, it's likely you gave weak glutes. You can Google easy exercises to do at home to strengthen these. Yiu don't have to do much for it to be effective - 2 x 10 on 3ach side every second day will make a difference.

Walking isn't exercise for me. It's a calorie burner, but it's not aerobic enough for me to be exercise

As someone who used to run, I think walking plus some kind of bodyweight exercise such as yoga is enough. Of course there is a question of how much, how often, how fast, etc. I'm doing yoga every day now and it's self-care and spiritual (for me, it doesn't have to be) and when I try some of the old stuff I used to do like lifting weights, circuit training and HIIT it feels masochistic and unhelpful.

Plus I've managed to keep weight off and feel generally healthier than when I was doing lots of high impact exercise. I hardly ever get coughs and colds whereas at one time I was picking up everything. I think it was just too much stress for my body after my mid 30s, but it took me several years to realise that it wasn't helping.

Also I am extremely bendy and strong and have zero aches and pains and back problems- not that those are inevitable in your mid 40s but a lot of people do suffer from back pain in particular.

For me one of the reasons I started running is to ward off osteoporosis- walking and swimming doesn't help with that whereas lifting weights and running. I don't really enjoy either but it's not masochistic - I'm doing it for the good of my future self!

Try this 20 minute yoga for beginners.

You can always lean up against the wall and/or stretch your legs out in front and/or sit on a cushion. Done regularly (though 20/30 minutes at a time can be pretty effective) yoga will really sort out your posture.

It definitely is enough to keep you fit if you walk at a fast pace and include hills and distance. I used to walk around 80 miles a week and was extremely fit. I used to overtake joggers though!

I would suggest weight training and lots of stretching during and after and try and adapt a protein only diet. Perhaps finish off with some basic yoga too.

All movement is good, but the challenge with walking is making sure that it is brisk enough to be of optimum benefit.

Brisk walking in combination with some stength and flexibility work is a straightforward lifestyle to maintain and viable for keeping upthrough life.

Maybe time to 'step it up' a bit? You've increased your basic fitness and got your joints moving, now perhaps deliberately include a few hills, something that takes at least 1/4 hour and gets your breathing going.
You should find that after a week or so that hill starts getting easier.
Then it's time to add another!

Have you considered doing couch 2 5k ... turning a couple of your weekly walks into run ?

Yoga with Adrienne and Yoga with Candace are both good on youtube. I think the important thing with yoga is that as its often pretty gentle you need to be doing it pretty much every day to make a difference.

Nordic walking is excellent exercise.
It uses more muscles than standard walking, you burn more calories yet is actually makes walking feel less of an effort, With poles, walking uphill is a breeze

I agree with you. I don't own a car and I walk for at least 2 and a half hours every day to school and my workplace. I'm still unfit and still overweight!

@Notjustanymum

Thanks for all the replies! I do walk fast but will check my posture now, as that could be part of the problem. I’ll cycle a bit when the weather gets better but will also take the advice to do weight-bearing and yoga exercises - I hadn’t though of using YouTube before, that’s a great suggestion. I love swimming but rarely do it (have had bad experiences at pools: they seem to encourage several activities at once, which inhibits lane swimming - at least at the times I can get there!) You’ve all inspired me!

I am yet to take my own advice, but everyone I know who is fit with good posture (and who walk lots) do Pilates.

The NHS recommends 3 types of fitness work for optimal health - moderate cardio exercise for c 150 mins a week and then strength based exercise/resistance training and flexibility work, each of which you should do I think 3 times a week. Walking can count as moderate cardio exercise providing you move at a brisk pace, not strolling or stopping too much, enough to get you mildly out of breath - sounds like your walks qualify for this element so you are doing great there. However do you do any strength or flexibility based work? Strength work doesn't have to be lifting weights in a gym, even things like carrying heavy shopping home can count or you can 'home make' some weights to start with by using bean cans or similar, or you can do exercises which use your own body weight such as squats, but you do need to do it right for it to be effective - the NHS has some links to some good beginners strength and flexibility online video classes you can look at to get you started?

Walking is really good cardio exercise as its low impact on the joints, happens outside which is good for mental health and also vitamin D absorption and is free and requires no particular equipment or clothing other than sensible shoes, so don't stop that. However from personal experience (and increasingly scientific evidence backs me up), if your main aim is to lose weight or tone up, I don't find any kind of low impact cardio exercise whether walking, running, swimming or cycling very effective, you have to do so much of it so regularly to make any significant difference that it's near impossible within an ordinary person's time and energy availability - diet control is far far more effective than exercise for weight loss in general, but the most effective kind of exercise is interval training, as high impact as you can get - known as HIIT - there's lots of ways you can do HIIT including doing short bursts of running or cycling sprints, but I tend to use 5 -10 min 'fat burner' shred, aerobics type videos, Michael Moseley made a whole programme on the topic and has a good 10 min routine recorded via the BBC, I've dropped off the wagon a bit with it recently but I think it's something like 1 minute doing as many star jumps as you can, 1 min rest, 1 min doing as many squats as you can, 1 min rest, 1 min running on the spot as fast as you can, repeat? Pretty painful whilst doing it but it seems to work, you certainly get out of puff and sweat (a lot ) but at least you know it's doing something and motivating to increase your 'count' week by week?

I am a qualified fitness instructor. I would say regular brisk walking is very good for the CV system - heart and lungs. It is also a weight bearing exercise - unlike cycling and swimming, so is good for eradicating early onset osteoporosis. Combine the walking with daily dynamic exercises to help warm the body, joints and muscles up.

www.healthline.com/health/exercise-fitness/dynamic-stretching#What-is-dynamic-stretching?-

People often assume weight training means lifting heavy weights, but this isn't true.
You can do 3-4 sets of light/medium weights to exercise different muscle groups. You don't need an olympic bar or lots of room, dumbells are fine.

www.dummies.com/health/exercise/weights/weight-training-how-many-reps-and-sets-to-do/

I use a Fitbit to make sure my walking is at a level for fitness. I don't have a car and dog walk every day. I started doing yoga last summer and do it 3 times a week.

User2921:

I have found walking is enough as long as it's done at pace and some hills are included.
Over the last year I started steadily and gradually increased distance pace and difficulty (hills) and have noticed a huge difference to my fitness, and to my muscle tone as a bonus.

Same here - my route includes several steep hills, and these make the difference between a gentle walk and something more challenging, that improves muscle tone and fitness. One hill was a real struggle for me when I first took up walking, several years ago. I struggled to reach the top and had to stop at the top to catch my breath, but now I stride up it and only stop briefly to admire the view.

OP - maybe your walking pace is sporadic, if your dog keeps stopping to sniff things out, etc? Also, how far do you actually walk - is it actually a short walk to the park, then half an hour ambling around while the dog socialises, off lead? I only walk once a day for around 1.5 hours, but cover around 4 miles.

Better than sitting on your arse. I walk at least an hour a day now, and as soon as the weather improves I'm going to start running in the park (weather is relevant because I don't like to be out alone in quiet parks, and in nice weather it's full of families and dog walkers!)

Swimming is great exercise, but of course not possible at the moment.

If you practise walking up hills you will get fit. Build hills into your dog walks