Make it a Habit: Talking about walking: How much is enough?

We time it. 

We track it. 

And we still take pride in making an early start to doing it. 

We’re talking about walking, a favorite form of fitness for many of us. Walking has become exercise partly because daily life has stopped requiring very much of it. But when it comes to fitness, is walking enough?

For centuries, walking was transportation in both work and daily life. Our forebears simply had to walk. Later, walking developed into a form of recreation, at least among the upper classes, with the Romantic movement (1800-1850). By the early 1900s, the advent of cars and trolleys made walking an option, versus the only option, for getting where we wanted to go.

In 1965, walking morphed into a form of fitness, with the release of the Manpo Meter, Japan’s Yamasa Clock Instrument Company’s step tracker for consumers. The device helped turn the country’s emerging “10,000 Steps a Day” movement into a national — and later international — fitness phenomenon.

Massachusetts earned bragging rights to the walking-as-fitness movement in the United States with the 1988 publication of “Walking for Health and Fitness” in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Author and cardiologist James Rippe, M.D., was affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Exercise Physiology and Nutrition Laboratory at the time.

Now, 60 years later, and thanks to smartphones, Apple Watches and fitness trackers like WHOOP!, we have walking groups, walking challenges and walking meetups. The quest for 10,000 steps a day — roughly four to five miles for most adults — remains.

It’s easy to make a case for walking as fitness. It’s an evidence-based way to improve aerobic conditioning and lower cardiovascular risk. Walking supports metabolic health by improving insulin sensitivity and glucose regulation. A form of weight-bearing exercise, it boosts bone density. Walking, especially in nature, elevates our mood, regulates stress and contributes to cognitive health. Daily movement is strongly associated with overall better health, so a consistent walking program can contribute to a robust healthspan.

Walking really shines when it comes to meeting experts’recommended amount of weekly moderate-intensity aerobic exercise of 150 minutes (or 2.5 hours) for adults. This guideline, which first emerged in 1995, is less about how you segment those 2½ hours and more about getting it done — and walking makes it easy to get it done.

However, walking doesn’t provide much stimulus for muscle strength and power, both of which become increasingly important as we age. Walking is not necessarily enough to challenge balance or support joint mobility. Finally, leisurely walking may not push the cardiovascular system enough to significantly improve aerobic capacity.

You can make your walking program more challenging. Think about walking as a continuum. Start with flat walking, and over time, move into brisk walking, hill walking, stair climbing and, finally, loaded walking. But, remember that loaded walking — carrying a weighted backpack or wearing a weighted vest — isn’t automatically better. Too much weight can alter your gait and increase joint and spine loading, which isn’t good.

So, is walking enough?  We tend to look for complicated answers to our health questions, but sometimes the best prescription is remarkably simple: get up and walk. Walk for your heart, your muscles, your brain, your mood — and because moving through the world on your own two feet is something worth preserving. You don’t have to hit 10,000 steps. Just take the next one.

Before beginning or restructuring a fitness program, always reach out to your health care provider for advice tailored to your unique needs and health conditions. This column is not intended to provide medical advice.