It`s not a big deal, really. You`ve done it all your life, or at least since you were about 2 years old. Push off the toes of one foot, lift that foot and place it a short distance in front of the one still on the ground. Repeat, alternating feet, to get from point A to point B.
But there`s more to walking than you may realize. When done properly you can get major cardiovascular benefits, with practically no chance of injury, from brisk walking.
If you`ve tried it all in your quest for physical fitness–running, aerobic dancing, squash, swimming, tennis and racquetball–diligently at first, then sporadically as the novelty wore off and the aches and pains set in, then perhaps it`s time to try a more ”civilized” sport–like walking.
”The time is right for walking to take its place as a serious form of exercise in this country,” says Gary Yanker, a former attorney turned full-time walking enthusiast and health magazine editor.
Walking is serious business in Europe, and Yanker was exposed to it as a student living abroad.
But he was a normal, red-blooded American kid who promptly forgot about walking when he got back to the States. There were sports in high school and cars in college to be concerned about. Later, there was also the 50 pounds he gained while attending Columbia University law school and the two-pack-a-day smoking habit he developed as a Wall Street lawyer.
Yanker began to think he should do something about his sagging shape, but what? ”In the mid-`70s you didn`t have everyone out jogging and being concerned about their health,” he recalls. ”It`s easy to stay fit while in school with all the sports activities that are available, but you need a regular, lifetime program of exercise, and our school system just doesn`t prepare you for that.”
When Yanker`s weight tipped the 240-pound mark, he knew it was time to take action. Remembering the long walks he had enjoyed in Europe, he spent a three-day weekend walking to get in the mood. ”That positive act got me started,” he says. ”In the next three months I took off 60 pounds following a program of walking and restricting calories.”
At first Yanker got friends to go walking with him. Now, as the walking editor of American Health, the founding editor of Walking World Magazine and the author of several books on the subject, he gets people all across the country interested in the sport.
There are 55 million exercise walkers in the United States, he says, explaining that an exercise walker is someone who walks at least two or three times a week for the aerobic benefits. There also are 93 million recreational walkers, according to Yanker.
He says New York is the top walk-to-work city in the country, followed by San Diego. According to the Bureau of Census, more than 405,000 of us walk to work every day.
Yanker recommends plenty of stretching before you set foot on a walking workout, and a slow cool-down period before you stop. Also, if you have any physical problems you should check with a doctor before embarking on any exercise program.
To burn calories, Yanker recommends walkers aim for a 15-minute-mile pace (that`s 4 miles an hour) or faster.
”Walking is the safest aerobic exercise, giving you the same cardiovascular training effects you get from running, jumping, and aerobic dancing, but none of the injuries,” he says. What`s more, everyone is capable of fast walking at a 3 1/2- to 5 1/2-m.p.h. rate. It`s good for your health and you don`t need any special talent to make the most of its benefits. But to get as comprehensive a workout from walking as from any other form of exercise, you need to know a bit, he says. Yanker has outlined his strategies in ”Walking Workouts” (Warner Books, $9.95).
In the book, he describes a series of four progressive workouts building on speedwork, resistance, weight training and endurance that can be done indoors or out. In one series of exercises, for example, you swap speed for resistance with a weight walking technique that uses hand-held and ankle weights to get your heart working harder and tone up muscles.
Some of Yanker`s routines can easily be followed walking down the street. ”Heel-toe rolls and out-edge walking can apply to any walk, but I wouldn`t want to do a crossover in public,” he says, referring to one of the more unusual-looking routines in the book, which has you stretching muscles by crossing one leg in front of the other as you step forward.
Exercising as part of everyday life is not the same as training for a marathon, Yanker says. Strive to be good, not great.
