To set the scene let’s look at an average person’s daily routine.
It starts to the soundtrack of an emergency. A tick of some daily rituals and a rush to the car to spend 30+mins where cortisol, blood glucose and blood lactate all rise in unison with the traffic.
You arrive at work, which involves sitting for 8+ hours and values of all those previous stress markers keep rising.
If you’re aware of your health and the importance of exercise you might drive to the gym to do an hour long intense workout that send these stressors even higher.
You drive home, make a convenient dinner and wind down with some electronic eye stimulation and surprise yourself at how hard it is to get good sleep.
(If it’s winter you might not even have seen daylight.)
And so the pattern starts all over again only now you throw in caffeine and high sugar energy foods and drinks to get through the dips.
Add to that bucket any number of other daily stressors and its inevitable overflow is precisely how chronic stress plays out in real time.
And that’s a significant barrier regardless of your goal – health improvement, fat loss or performance.
There’s a perception that exercise is the antidote to a stressful life. And of course there’s some truth to that but it can also be a double-edged sword.
Because not all exercise elicits the same response – not even close.
Enter – walking.
And really this could be any low intensity cardio work but I like walking because:
- It’s free and accessible
- Doesn’t require any equipment
- It’s scalable
- It’s highly correlated with health outcomes
- It’s convenient
Why walking?
Well walking has a direct effect on all those stress markers we mentioned earlier.
- Cortisol – Though it might rise initially while walking there can be a significant decrease afterwards that can last for hours.
- Blood Glucose – Whenever we use our muscles they demand more energy and an important contributor to that is our blood glucose. Do it regularly and it’ll improve insulin sensitivity meaning your body needs less insulin to manage blood sugar levels.
- Blood Lactate – During low intensity exercise (below the lactate threshold) both production and removal of blood lactate are balanced. And similar to blood glucose this system adapts more efficiently with regular walking.
Aside from the physiology, walking provides a low skill exercise that allows us dedicated time to disconnect from daily worries and focus on movement.
The Japanese for instance describe walking in nature as “forest bathing” or shinrin-yoku.
The combination of fresh air, natural surroundings, and gentle exercise can lower cortisol levels, decrease blood pressure, and boost mood and mental clarity.
So how do we work it in?
Well there are a few practical routes:
- If you’re a regular gym goer then perhaps substituting some of the higher intensity sessions for a walk might give you more overall balance. It will likely allow for better recovery meaning you can get more from your ‘harder’ sessions.
- Consider walking on your lunchbreak from work. If you have an hour’s break it should be possible to walk for 30-45mins. Keep it light so you don’t come back to your desk sweaty.
- It might be possible to fit in a walk either before or after the working day by parking further from the workplace.
- When you take a phonecall get up and walk around, if it’s a longer call to family then get on the pavement as a bonus you’ll probably find conversation easier.
- Make it social. Meet friends or family for walks.
- Join or start a walking group or arrange some hikes.
- If you truly struggle for time during the week you can do some longer walks at the weekend and simply try to clock up more steps on other days. Start small by adding in 1000 steps more than you usually do.
So start today and take the steps towards unlocking your goals.