Only walking for exercise?
theconversation.com
theconversation.com
Dirt paths look nicer than sidewalks anyway, so I guess we’re just going to have to tear up the streets and stroads all together, rather than trying to staple on walkability!
While some fundamentalists might go completely barefoot, I've always heard people talk about that book in terms of using light sole shoes instead of heavy shoes, not ditching protective footwear entirely. Even the subject of that book often wear thin moccasins during long distance runs.
I remember once bushwalking with a group and there was a sudden torrential rainstorm, and you could see all the little leeches sticking their heads up from the mud. By the time we got back to the van, I was the only one without a single leech on me.
I only ever had issues with cuts etc in town on the bitumen or gravel (but I suppose it could be quite dangerous in some parts of the world).
Now that's an oxymoron if I ever saw one!
Though, in a certain way, shoes can be said to be barefoot from the start: they aren't wearing any shoes themselves.
So yes, while it sounds like an oxymoron, it is actually just an industry term of art (you’ll see major companies advertise certain of their shoes as barefoot - Merrell comes to mind with their VaporGlove and Trail Glove, both of which are fantastic shoes).
The other nice thing about barefoot shoes (since I find myself in full on sales mode) is that due to the lack of padding, they last significantly longer than traditional mass market shoes. My trail runners (the Merrell’s) are in season 5 now, when my old trail shoes by Saucony lasted one season Max, and my mileage has increased substantially from when I used to wear the Saucony’s.
ps: all in all it's just another point in the fact that modern life is really mediocre
Every so often I do hit a wonky patch that I'm surprised didn't cause an injury or sprain but so far so good. That's mostly on me for combining the enjoyment of uneven terrain with an enjoyment of nighttime walks haha, but does happen during the day too now and then.
Good to hear it might be a little bit beneficial too! Yay for eccentric walking!
A little bit deadly if it's been raining but if it's dry out it's a heck of a workout going directly up/down the pictured desire path rather than following the proper path round and up. Usually I'll go up the steep and down the regular path rather than risk breaking my neck in public, that would be embarrassing.
Loads of steep but this-side-of-possible hills around the local castle ruins - built on a hill as pictured, plus where the former moat was, and plenty of hills and valleys around the immediate area :D
I'll have to mix up the path I take around that bit to keep my brain awake and aware! Good shout!
I usually follow tractor tyre lines as it was until recently working farmland (I'd never want to damage the crops!) but it's just regular grass this year so I can walk wherever freely - I think the farmer sold the land so the council can run a road through the middle of it.. trying to get the most out of it before it's paved over and I need to find a new regular trek haha
"flat sidewalks are too flat and not enough fun to walk so lets make erratic sidewalks instead" has got to be one of the dumbest takes I've seen on HN.
Instead of killing yourself and getting immensly frustrated at the gym, it gives you incredible initial gains. Being really out of shape is a downward spiral - the worse it gets the harder it is to perform "normal" excercises, like gym, jogging, or even bike riding. And it's really annoying, remembering how easy these were for you just few pounds earlier.
And all that continuous walking gets a little faster and faster after a few months and can turn into jogging/running on it's own, except you have learned how to maintain your heart rate a bit more.
2. My opinion, nothing to do with the article, though a lot to do with the misleading title: Overall, walking for 30 mins to an hour a day is huge and will increase fitness an incredible amount over nothing. Of course, it can replace neither intensive cardio, weight lifting, or mobility work. But throw a few hills in there, and it's probably sufficient to stay healthy.
(People like doing higher-impact activity to feel like they put in the work. Which they did! But many of those health benefits could be realized with daily long walks, daily stretching, and better dietary choices, and I say this as someone who literally wrote this while eating cheesecake LOL. It was a small size though! And I track calories!)
Here's why I think walking is completely maligned.
First reason: Suburbs.
The biggest issues that I have with American suburbs is that there is nothing interesting to walk to, most of the jobs can only be reached by car and walking infrastructure outside of housing enclaves is nonexistent. So you're either walking at work (good luck if you have an office job) or making time to walk at home.
Given that the cheapest housing in most of the US is in the suburbs, this problem will only accelerate.
Second reason: HOKAs.
Walking is further compromised by massively popular footwear that is terrible for the kinetic chain.
A lot of people wear running shoes for walking. These are plushier at the expense of unwanted shock compensation at the ankles, knees, and hips.
However, minimalist footwear that exploded in popularity after Born to Run and xero on Shark Tank wasn't good either, as runners got injured like crazy trying to heel strike with shoes that are designed to prevent exactly that.
Sneakers in the 70s and 80s were low-drop and low stack. I prefer zero drop with barefoot stack (soles less than 6mm thick) but I wish we could return to those, as those are so much safer.
Third reason: Fucking flip flops.
I also wish we could completely ditch flip flops for proper sandals with heel support. Flip flops are unsafe (no support if you slip) and are a huge contributor to plantar fasciitis (imagine your toes trying to grab onto something for support...on every step...for MONTHS at a time!). They're fine for extremely short distances, like walking from the beach to somewhere inside, but they are a huge problem for everyday footwear!
(Edit: spelling)
Stepping in-place is not too much fun but the act of deciding to do say 100 steps gives me a psychological jolt of feeling I can do it, I have the strength, I can do anything!
I've also started to lift my arms up and down while doing the steps, which is good exercise for my arm-muscles.
Health is not the same as strength.
For the rest of us we probably didn’t do enough when younger.
There is a wiiiiiide space of healthy activity levels between couch potato and 100 mile per week future Olympian hopeful.
For things like walking and running the safety margins are much bigger. Then again maybe not, I had my sister who trained track in high school teach me technique before I started running more seriously.
The "no true Scotsman" of "if you got injured, you were doing it wrong by definition" didn't help.
Deadlifting can be done safely which is evinced by the many people who have done it without injuring themselves. I feel for you that you got bad advice. I do agree however that with good form, it should be difficult to injure yourself seriously deadlifting. The rub is that not everyone has the ability to self-assess and some coaches are also bad. If you are not very confident you will not hurt yourself, you absolutely should not deadlift heavy weights.
That said, I'm still 22kg down from Feb 2022 when I started, from 107kg then to under 84kg today. There is a lot of positive benefits to becoming a completely stubborn asshole with yourself when it comes to diet, regular cardio, and strength training. But I won't go near heavy deadlifts again.
Well, I've got some MRI images that disagree, sadly.
Most beginners I’ve seen do not take the 5min it takes to learn proper form. And even if they do, they lack the proprioception to know when they’re doing it right.
You really need a mirror or someone to keep you honest, preferably both, for the first few sessions. Someone needs to tell you what correct looks like on your body. It’s very hard to get right on your own if you don’t have a history of working with a coach who developed your proprioception.
I’m what you would call a grinding amateur. After 10+ years of daily workouts it takes me only a few hundred tries to do what a coach tells me. My sister has been a competitive athlete since 4 years old. It takes her 2or3 reps to perform exactly the movement a coach gives her (even in a new sport). Just because her body control is so much more developed than mine.
In any case, I'd say most barbell exercises are actually quite advanced and challenging motions to learn. Just look at how many videos there try trying to teach you "how to fix your deadlift", aimed at "experienced" lifters and athletes. The reality is that the barbell deadlift is almost unique amongst exercises in how much you are working around your equipment. You literally have to learn how to sequence your lift to make sure you don't bash the bar into your knees (body geometry dependent).
To riff on that even more (and to link back to the article) - if you were going to program in only a single lower body exercise, I'd probably pick the lunge (+dumbbells) for its relative safety, greater balance amongst muscle groups (major and stabilizing), being somewhat dynamic (especially if you step into it), being unilateral.
Being able to deadlift and squat a 45lb kettlebell should be the minimum everyone strives for.
Not disagreeing with you, I'll happily deadlift only up 25kg but it still only six months after my surgery so ...
My form was correct, as far as I know, I was looking forward, legs spread apart, back straight, etc. I lifted, and I felt a pop, and my back hurt for a week.
Afterwards, once a year or so, I'd make some small movement, like trying to lift a bag, or just misstep when walking, and my back cramped again and I couldn't move for days. Nowadays it's just permanent.
It sounds like it's pretty essential for maintaining good muscle density as I age, though.
Once the weights start getting moderately heavy and progress slows, you're better off moving to a more sustainable form of programming. (I'm a fan of the Tactical Barbell books personally.)
Injury risk comes down to doing things your body isn't prepared for through inappropriate load and fatigue management.
That said there’s a lot of evidence eccentric contraction is crucial for strength gain. But this experiment isn’t convincing alone.