As a subject, fitness walking is more complex than many people realize. I’m interested in addressing the huge cohort of non-walkers who don’t know what true fitness walking means, and how it can contribute radically to their health and well-being.
Avid walkers understand how regular walking makes them feel in general: invigorated, energetic, able to sleep better, healthier, and sharper mentally. In fact, most non-walkers know this could be true for them, too. Yet, many have major difficulties sustaining a walking program. When it comes to developing a sustainable fitness walking regimen, which effort-related attitudes are most likely to result in a continued walking program? Could it be that the walking activity itself harbors the key motivational element?
Let’s say a program consists of daily walks of 20-90 minutes. There’s a certain amount of scheduling and prioritizing that must happen to clear space for a walking regimen. I’m not focusing here on how to create a fitness walking habit. I’m interested in what gets poured into those daily walking time slots, including the essential ingredient: exertion. I suspect there’s something inherently disagreeable, unsustainable, and harmful about the exertion experience for non-walkers.
To maximize the chances that non-walkers will become true fitness walkers, exertion mustn’t be too hard, nor too easy, but just right. Optimal exertion can occur at any moment during a walk (e.g., relaxed on a hill, instead of pressed), or it can be the effort of the entire walk (e.g., 30 minutes at light exertion feels easy, instead of hard).
“True walkers have learned from long experience to always feel at least satisfied but often exhilarated by exercise.”
I define fitness walking as an exercise activity that raises one’s heart rate above the resting, non-exercise level. There are six distinct exercise levels: mild, light, steady state, threshold, ragged edge, and maximum. As a professional fitness trainer and avid walker, I situate fitness walking at the mild and light levels.
Light exertion is marked by a heart rate that’s roughly double one’s resting rate. Light exertion walking feels slow-to-brisk, with normal breathing and no discomfort, not even tolerable discomfort. At the start of a light exertion walk, you’ll feel like you’re holding yourself back from going faster. Obviously, the mild exertion level is even slower, gentler, and more comfortable. But, in fitness walking terms, any walking pace that’s conversational and feels mild or light qualifies as being in the right exertion range.
I believe enjoyment is what distinguishes true fitness walkers. Let’s be clear: walking exercise takes a certain amount of effort. And everyone who takes a walk develops an attitude about their effort. It can be defined as: oppressed, burdened, satisfied, enjoyed, exhilarated. My hunch is that non-walkers generally feel burdened or oppressed by walking exercise, while true walkers have learned from long experience to always feel at least satisfied but often exhilarated by it.
Given regular and adequate recoveries from walking workouts, a non-athlete can learn to train optimally and thereby see immediate fitness gains. Then the key becomes creating the means of supporting the fitness walking discipline in a social context.