Walking Counts: You Don’t Need a Gym to Look After Yourself
There is a peculiar thing that happens when somebody mentions exercise.
Suddenly we’re surrounded by Lycra.
There are protein shakes, smartwatches, personal bests and people on social media apparently delighted to be awake at 5:30 in the morning doing something involving enormous ropes.
Good for them.
I’m going for a walk.
And before anyone dismisses that as the easy option, we should probably look at what walking actually does.
Exercise doesn’t have to look like exercise
Yesterday we talked about sleep and the importance of giving our bodies some sort of rhythm.
Movement belongs in the same conversation.
The World Health Organization recommends adults aim for 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, alongside muscle-strengthening activity on two or more days.
That can sound rather daunting.
But here’s the bit I prefer.
All physical activity counts.
Walking counts. Cycling counts. Gardening counts. Household jobs count. Moving around as part of your working day counts.
In fact, the NHS says even a brisk ten-minute daily walk has health benefits and contributes towards that weekly activity target.
Ten minutes.
I’ve spent longer than that looking for my keys.
We’re sitting an awful lot
Modern life has become exceptionally good at removing movement.
We sit in cars.
We sit at desks.
We sit watching television.
Then, having spent most of the day sitting down, we’re sold elaborate ways of putting the movement back.
There’s nothing wrong with gyms — plenty of people love them — but we shouldn’t confuse exercise with movement.
WHO estimates that around 31% of adults worldwide aren’t sufficiently physically active. It also reports that people who are insufficiently active have a 20–30% greater risk of death than those who are sufficiently active.
That’s a fairly persuasive argument for getting off the sofa occasionally.
Walking does something else too
There’s another reason I like walking.
It gets us out into the world.
In my first article, I suggested spending twenty minutes outside without trying to achieve anything. Walking is an easy extension of that idea.
Naturism Wales has been banging this drum for some time too: getting outdoors, slowing down and enjoying Wales doesn’t have to involve some grand expedition.
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A walk can be through woodland.
Along the coast.
Around a reservoir.
Across the hills.
Or simply around the streets where you live.
And if you’re somewhere private and appropriate for naturism, there is something rather wonderful about walking without clothing too. You notice temperature, sunlight, shade and air against your skin in ways that clothing normally filters out.
But the important word there is appropriate.
A healthy relationship with nature includes respecting the places and communities we’re moving through. That’s something Naturism Wales has rightly emphasised elsewhere: freedom works alongside respect for privacy, local rules and other people.
Don’t turn your walk into another competition
This might be the most important bit.
You don’t need 10,000 steps before your day counts.
You don’t need Strava.
You don’t need to climb Yr Wyddfa before breakfast.
If you currently do very little, walk for ten minutes.
If ten feels comfortable, perhaps eventually make it fifteen.
If you already walk regularly, go somewhere different.
And occasionally — this is the radical suggestion — don’t measure it at all.
Leave the watch alone.
Put the phone in your pocket.
Walk until you feel like turning around.
The NHS specifically recommends building walking into ordinary life and increasing distance gradually if you’re not currently very active.
That sounds considerably more sustainable to me than declaring that Monday marks the beginning of your entirely new personality.
Because we’re only three articles into this series, but there’s already a pattern emerging.
Look after your sleep.
Spend some time outside.
Move your body.
None of it is glamorous.
None of it requires a subscription.
And perhaps looking after ourselves was never supposed to be quite as complicated as we’ve made it.
When did you last go for a walk with absolutely nowhere you needed to be?
