Walking Your Way to Better Health

It’s no secret that walking is good for you.

A natural and low impact activity that helps us connect more deeply to ourselves, others, and the world around us. Walking has been shown time and time again to boast some magnificent health benefits. The benefits tend to rise and peak around 10,000 steps per day, but any amount of walking is infinitely better than none. Research studies have demonstrated that regular walking can reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, dementia, hypertension, and much more. It can also boost mood and mental health, bone density, balance, and aerobic fitness. Walking is great for your brain! Especially when done in new places, walking can promote neuroplasticity, bringing about remodeling in the white matter of our brain. This remodeling can improve memory, spatial awareness, and other higher level cognitive functions. When you combine a regular walking practice with a healthful diet rich in plants, social engagement, high quality sleep, and living true to your ikigai, you have found the fountain of youth.

If walking is so great for us, why aren’t we doing more of it? Many people may face significant barriers when it comes to walking. Some barriers may be environmental. Perhaps not living close to any safe walking areas, but rather an inner city with spotty side walks and heavy traffic. Or, perhaps it’s the weather. Many of us become Goldilocks when it comes to the temperature. Maybe it’s simply a lack of motivation. “I don’t feel like it.” “I don’t have the time.” Most commonly in physical therapy, the barriers are pain, as well as balance or mobility issues. Regardless of the barriers, it is important to become aware of them and address them accordingly.

For many of the barriers, it can be helpful to shift away from an “all or nothing” mindset. Many people feel like if they are going to walk, it has to be a long walk, and it has to be every day. Otherwise, what’s the point? The barriers become too great and instead, we end up not walking at all. A better strategy would be to find the middle ground between the all or nothing. How can I walk today? Can I sneak in five minutes after eating lunch and before my next meeting? Can I park farther away and take the stairs? Can I walk while I talk on the phone or listen to my audiobook? Perhaps if a long daily walk is daunting, set small realistic goals instead.

No matter how short the walk is, finding consistency in a routine is far more important than the actual distance walked. Perfect is the enemy of good.

Significant barriers to a regular walking practice as mentioned previously are challenges with pain, mobility and balance. At the Wellness Station, we can work together to figure out ways to get you walking without being limited by these challenges. Some factors to consider might be frequency and duration of walks, as well as implementing more rest breaks into walking. Or perhaps a mobility device can help take stress off certain joints or improve the ability to maintain balance while walking. Activity modifications can help decrease the barriers to a regular walking practice to help us get moving more regularly and with greater confidence.

Oftentimes, the movement patterns that we have developed can actually be limiting factors to the quality of our gait, which can contribute to pain and dysfunction. We learned how to walk once- we can learn some new ways! Relearning new motor patterns might start with a simple awareness practice.

Consider the following practice, perhaps walking around inside:

As you walk, pay attention to your footstep. Some things to be aware of are… “How do my feet make contact with the ground?” “What is my foot print like on each foot?” “How heavy or light is my step?” “How long is my step length?” “How wide is my step from right to left?” This awareness can be applied to many other aspects of the gait cycle and body parts which may include attention to the knees, pelvis, hips, spine, rib cage, shoulders, and head.

After becoming aware of the way in which you are walking, it is time to explore some changes. There are infinite ways to bring about changes into the mechanics of gait. Here are some examples:

• Slow walking. Simply change the speed of your walking to notice what it is like to walk in slow motion

• Walking in different directions. What is it like to walk backwards, or from side to side?

• Strut like you mean it. Introduce a fluid glide in your hips as you walk, and allow your arms to swing with your opposite leg. 

As you explore some variations in your walking, it is important to not play “fix it” with your body. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to walk, simply more options. As body detectives, throughout the therapeutic experience it is our job to find options that are more comfortable, thereby allowing us to sustain a healthy and active lifestyle. 

Written by Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist, Yoga Instructor and The Wellness Station Team

References:

1. https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/12/health/walking-cancer-heart-early-death-wellness/index.html

2. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/14/well/move/exercise-walking-brain-memory.html 

Moving in Three Dimensions

All movement occurs in some combination of the three dimensions. This includes the sagittal plane, frontal plane, and transverse plane.

Movement in the sagittal plane, which involves flexion and extension of the body, is the most common movement that is trained, and tends to be the most familiar in our daily lives. Sagittal plane movements include squatting, walking, climbing stairs, bicep curls, and interacting with objects that are in front of us.

Sagittal Plane

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Frontal plane movements relate to lateral, or side to side movements, and may include side stepping, side bending, and lateral arm or leg raises.

Frontal Plane

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The transverse plane is the third dimension of movement, and includes rotational movements such as turning the spine from left to right, or rotating the hips or shoulders in or out.

Traverse Plane

Movements in the sagittal plane tend to be overemphasized in people's lives, whereas the latter two planes of movements may be more unfamiliar.

We must be able to move with agility and efficiency in all three dimensions in order to respond to the unpredictable demands of daily life without strain. Limiting movement to only one dimensions can put more stress on particular tissues of the body, which can contribute to pain and pathology, particularly of our joints. For example, walking has the potential to be very beneficial for our whole bodies, but the way we walk can also contribute to excessive strain on certain joints. If we only ever walked on flat, invariable terrain (think concrete or a treadmill), and tend to keep our spines very rigid while we walk, this would limit our movement to primarily the sagittal plane. This may put extra stress on certain regions of our weight-bearing joints, particularly our hips and knees.

If we can vary the way we walk as well as the terrain we walk on, we can move in all three dimensions which will spread the movement over a greater area of our bodies. Imagine adding a little “dance” to your walk by allowing the pelvis to glide from side to side with each step, as well as allowing the arms to swing and the chest to turn. This will allow the body to move more fluidly by including side-bending and rotational movements in our gait. Combine this with regularly walking on different terrains (e.g. inclines/declines, twists and turns, grass, dirt, stones, etc.), and we will stimulate our bodies in constantly varying ways to minimize repetitive strain on isolated areas.

As part of a comprehensive treatment plan, your Wellness Station therapist will ensure your program includes balanced movements in all three dimensions. It is our mission to address the root of issues, rather than treating symptoms, an unfortunate tendency that is often found in more traditional therapeutic approaches. We strive to see the bigger picture, and will help you develop strategies to bring greater balance and ease into all dimensions of life.  

Written by Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist, Yoga Instructor and The Wellness Station Team